Re: Honoring traditional defaults - how to do it. [was: Transient Mark Mode on bydefault]

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Richard!

On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 10:53:59PM -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
>     > Making Emacs easier to learn is an improvement, in general.  But
>     > what use is there in having a different Emacs configuration which
>     > is easier to learn, if it is not the recommended mode of use?

>     It is useful if it makes it easier to get to the final result,
>     getting there in two stages rather than going straight there - a
>     bit like first teaching skiers to turn by skidding their skis on
>     the snow, to give them confidence, then in the advanced classes
>     getting them to edge their skis and get proper carved turns.

> I am skeptical that it will work this way.  I think that most people
> will learn the easy-to-learn version and stop there.

We seem to have come full circle.

My proposal was to have several commands to start Emacs, in particular:
(i) "emacs-easy" would start Emacs with Transient Mark Mode enabled, and
  display a message suggesting the newby change to "emacs".
(ii) "emacs" would retain the traditional default here.

You have endorsed making T-M-M on by default.  I have argued that T-M-M
is objectively inferior to !T-M-M, particularly for experienced Emacsers.

Identifying "easy-to-learn version" with "T-M-M as default", I think
newbies are more likely to move to "traditional emacs" by my suggestion
than by the current state (T-M-M on by default).

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).