Re: position on changing defaults?

[Miles Bader]

address@hidden (Kim F. Storm) writes:
> BTW, why is using a pre- or post- command hook so bad?

Because the more packages use those, the slower _basic_ Emacs usage gets.

Many packages are tempted to use them, because they're a quick-and-easy
way to do things; but if _everybody_ starts using them, wham, suddenly
emacs bogs down.  For this reason, we should discourage their use as far
as possible, _especially_ in stuff that's on by default.

Maybe in some cases using them is unavoidable, and the benefit is worth
the cost, and maybe cua mode is such a case -- but OTOH, maybe we can
find a better way.  I think we should try anyway, and if cua or some
cua-like selection mode is to be on by default, it's more important that
we try.

> Or use cua-selection-mode - to get all the benefits it provides!
...
> Also, why is it necessary to refactor it into simple.el -- it's
> not that simple :-)

It may or may not be simple, but easily separated small features are
much more understandable and maintainable, not to mention more elegant.

Giant do-everything gob-modes are bad in general, _especially_ if
they're turned on by default.

-Miles

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