[PATCH] Time to consider pending-del default

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

This discussion doesn't belong on xemacs-patches, trimming.

>>>>> "Steven" == Steven E Harris <seh at panix.com> writes:

    Steven> Not only do I find Pending Delete preferable, I don't even
    Steven> understand the reason it should ever being turned
    Steven> off. What's the point of having an active selection if not
    Steven> to operate on it with the following editing commands?

None.  The question is "active with respect to _which_ editing
commands?"  Some people have very strong preference for modeless
operation (aka "explicit is better than implicit"), and pending delete
means that both marking a region and insertion have unobvious
side-effects: marking changes the mode of insertion implicitly, and
insertion may or may not involve an implicit deletion depending on the
presence of a region, which need not be visible (eg, if point is in
the far upper left or lower right of the window).

I would argue that historically Emacs hackers have been of that
persuasion, thus the resistence to pending delete mode as a default.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.