Re: delete-selection-mode as default

[hw]

Bingo <address@hidden> writes:

>   Can we consider changing defaults only for users who don't have any init 
> file at all ?

Unexpectable behaviour of Emacs only because there is no ~/.emacs would
be confusing.

Which defaults is Emacs supposed to assume for settings that have not
been made in ~/.emacs because the user didn't need to change them before
the developers did?

>   This change may not solve many problems, due to two other features of emacs 
> : 

These are problems of other editors.

> 1. Emacs undo is frustrating for most new users. Correcting mistakes
> with delete-selection-mode i.e. restore a selection that was deleted
> due to a mistaken delete by typing/pasting , will need them to use
> undo.

Every editor that doesn't understand Emacs` key bindings and doesn't
have its functions is frustrating (to use an euphemism).

Emacs` undo sucks when you need it more than once because you have to
press two keys for it.  Using a prefix doesn't work to make this easier
because I have no way of knowing how many times I have to use undo
before I get back to where I want to.  It is a really bad choice.

C-z can not easily be used for undo.  Other editors should never have
used it for that anyway.  I don't see why they would because it suspends
the process.

> 2. In their attempt to play with undo/redo, they might do C-y. Which
> pastes in Emacs : but it is the key for redo in many "modern"
> editors. This can cause more unintended deletions in
> delete-selection-mode.

This is another example of how delete-selection-mode supports making
mistakes.  Without it, C-y seems fine.  Shift+Insert works only in X
frames.

Now imagine you change the key binding for undo and for yank when there
is no ~/.emacs to make things easier for beginners.  The beginner uses
customize to change colours and to set a font and saves this settings.

Suddenly undo and yank --- and perhaps lots of other things --- "don't
work" anymore because the key bindings have changed.  Does that make
things easier for beginners --- or more difficult?