RE: delete-selection-mode as default (WAS: Some developement questions)

[Drew Adams]

I agree that a poll of this list is not a great guide (for this question
and many others).

> Two questions should be considered: a) "Would leaving it off scare
> away potential new users?" and b) "Would turning it on obscure an
> option that is potentially useful to at least a subset of new users?"

I must have missed what that potentially useful option is.

> On the other hand, if `delete-selection-mode` is on by default,
> most, if not all, new users will never even consider the
> possibility that Emacs has the option to disable it and that
> that might actually fit their workflow better.

This too hints at some advantage to having it off.

The only argument I saw here (unless I've forgotten already)
in favor of it being off (by default or not) is that when it is on
a user (new or old) can too easily accidentally delete text.

(Some added "irretrievably", but I haven't seen that claim
supported yet.)

That advantage would seem to be something that would
most benefit new users, no? But the claim has been that
new users are more used to the on, not the off, behavior.

So again, what's the advantage to it being off? (It's not a
rhetorical question.) Is there really some useful "option"
that its being off offers? Does that give you additional
choice or control?