[Nano-devel] should ^W be rebound to 'search_forward'?

[Benno Schulenberg]

Op 25-09-2017 om 17:46 schreef David Ramsey:
> Benno Schulenberg:
> > ^S will be the first thing people will try for saving a file,
>
> For the record, I'm in favor of these changes.

Thanks.

> Also, after they gets in, sample.nanorc will need to be updated, since
> it still refers to the savefile function's being unused.

Yes.  I will include that change.

> The attached
> patch should accomplish this.  (It also fixes a grammar issue in the
> same area: "different than" should be "different from".)

Hmm.  And if I changed "different" to "other", would it be okay then?


Something else.  When ^Q becomes "Start a backward search", shouldn't
^W be changed to become "Start a forward search"?  Instead of just
"Start a search"?  Because if not, and the user actually makes use of
^Q to do a backward search, then the next ^W will *also* do a backward
search.  Which is awkward.  It would require a toggle of M-B to get a
forward search again. But of course, for the users that are accustomed
to the current behavior of ^W (its remembering the direction of the last
search), changing ^W to search always forward will be annoying -- it
would require them to learn to use ^Q instead.

Changing the behavior would make for a more consistent interface,
which is good for new users.  And leaving the rebinding of ^W (to
a more sensible function) up to the user will not upset old users.

I don't know what to do, but tend toward rebinding ^W by default
and incurring the wrath of the habitual backward searchers (those
with 'set backwards' in their .nanorc file) -- which I hope will
be very few.

Anyone an opinion on this?

Benno