RE: delete-selection-mode as default

[Drew Adams]

> > If we are going to introduce a command for temporarily disabling or
> > re-enabling the region, we had better do it without making it
> > disappear from display, IMO.
> 
> As a user of transient-mark-mode, shift-select-mode and
> delete-selection-mode, I’d expect to be among the target audience for
> this facility being discussed. But, strangely, I very rarely find
> myself in a situation where I have an active region that I want to
> preserve for later while wanting to type something. I am certainly
> okay with temporarily deactivating the mark and the region
> highlighting, if I know I’ll be easily able to re-activate it.
> 
> How would a command to temporarily suspend delete-selection-mode
> work?
> I assume the user will have to press at least one key to invoke it.
> Then, I expect there will be an unpredictable sequence of self-insert
> and/or yank and/or other editing commands, so the user will also
> indicate the moment when he/she wants delete-selection-mode back. At
> this point, it is not going to be any more efficient than just binding
> delete-selection-mode to an easy key or binding C-S-g to (lambda ()
> (interactive) (activate-mark)); each of these takes one keypress
> before and one keypress after typing-without-replacing-selection.
> 
> Also, a user who enables and disables d-s-m often would need some kind
> of indication of its current status — either a modeline lighter or a
> special face for the region when it is active but will not be replaced
> by typing.

FWIW, Yuri said exactly what I would have said.

What's the real use case for such temporary enabling/disabling of d-s-m? And 
how is it different from just, well, enabling/disabling d-s-m?

You've said that you guess that at least some people will want to take 
advantage of d-s-m sometimes and sometimes not use it. OK, but maybe an example 
would help.

In any case, how do you envision enabling/disabling d-s-m as something 
different from turning d-s-m on/off? If you want some key(s) to enable/disable 
it, how is that different from just binding a key (or keys) to 
`delete-selection-mode'?