Re: [Texmacs-dev] Should Emacs look-and-feel really be the default on Unix?

[Joris van der Hoeven]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2005 at 10:22:52AM +0200, Norbert Nemec wrote:
> >I did that on Windows, but not under Unix, where the Emacs look and feel is 
> >default.
> Independent of the confirmation quesition discussed before:
> 
> I wonder whether it is such a good idea to make Emacs look-and-feel the
> default on Unix: Back in the old days, it may have been reasonably to
> assume that an average Unix user would be used to Emacs keybindings.
> 
> In the days of KDE and Gnome, many of the key- and mouse bindings are
> converging towards something that is much more similar to Windows than
> to Emacs.
> 
> The average Unix user may not even have used Emacs before, but is
> certainly used to the Windows bindings. The chance that he/she discovers
> the preference setting to Windows bindings before struggling through
> learning the "new" Emacs behavior are not very good.
> 
> A classical Emacs addict is much more likely to accept Windows behavior
> at the first encounter of TeXmacs and then may be positively surprised
> that the program even offers Emacs bindings.

Hmm, maybe we should organize an opinion poll...

I agree that Gnome/Kde/Windows like bindings may be easier for
the average user. Moreover, it has the advantage of freeing
a large range of keystrokes for more interesting purposes.

On the other hand, the name "TeXmacs" suggests some Emacs compatability
and several Emacs fans will not like such a change. Especially if you use
both Emacs and TeXmacs (like me), then other bindings may be confusing.
Also, Emacs bindings are occasionnaly very handy if you are confronted
to some strange keyboard (with missing arrow keys for instance,
as happened recently to me).

Also, quite a lot of the documentation might need to be adapted...

Best wishes, Joris