Re: Discussions about key bindings

[tomas]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 12:54:25PM +0100, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> I find the recent spate of discussions about key bindings for
> third-party code rather befuddling [...]

:-)

I must admit that, while I find that problem space quite
interesting, I lost track of most of that discussion.

I'm impressed by those folks still following along and
staying pretty constructive.

There are many dimensions to the problem. OTOH, *my* [1]
bindings are very close to *my* heart, so a hostile reaction
on *my* part whenever tries to take away some of that is,
at least, understandable.

On the other hand, if everyone has his/her private bindings,
communication becomes more difficult. Picture someone in
a forum writing "then hit C-x C-f" -- but IMO the problem
goes deeper; some kind of "UI fragmentation" occurs, where
part of the community perhaps doesn't /understand/ other
parts, because they're seeing (or experiencing) very different
things.

Somewhere between those two poles, life happens :-)

There are more dimensions, with poles at each end (keyboard
has been mentioned: CTRL-\ is easy on an US keyboard; I
have a German one, there it's awkward; What's important on
CTRL-Y: the label on the key, or the physical position on
the keyboard (for US people: in the middle of the upper
row, for Germans in the lower left). And so on. Up to now,
Emacs hasn't taken that into account. Should it? Should it
not? What about a Thai keyboard [2]?

Emacs, btw, has accumulated an exceptional history of keeping
together an incredibly diverse bunch. Watch other UI or "user
experience" discussions to see what I mean. I think Emacs
can be proud of that.

I don't have a good idea to make the current discussion more
fruitful, except perhaps that it might be good to take a
step back and try to get a grip of the problem in a more
abstract (and perhaps non-technical) way.

Cheers

[1] *my* used as a generic placeholder
[2] Kedmanee? Pattachote?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Kedmanee_keyboard_layout
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Pattachote_keyboard_layout

 - t

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