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Key binding M-g should really be goto-line


From: Jari Aalto+mail.emacs
Subject: Key binding M-g should really be goto-line
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:58:00 +0200
User-agent: Gnus/5.110003 (No Gnus v0.3) Emacs/21.3 (windows-nt)

[please keep CC, I'm not in this list]

I noticed that in CVS lisp/ the M-g mapping reads:

  ldefs-boot.el: (define-key global-map "\M-g" 'facemenu-keymap)

A while ago there was a long discussion:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-03/msg00642.html

But I dare to open this question again. I understood that the goal of
keeping M-g where is now is was that in some distant foggy future it might
be used for text editing. 

    http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-03/msg00642.html
    From: Richard Stallman

    "I want Emacs to move in the direction of doing word processing.  It
    may take years, but we will get there.  Then commands to specify faces
    will become important, and will need a good key binding.

    I chose the M-g binding for that reason, and the reason continues to
    have force.  So I don't intend to change that binding."

Please, I have been watching this future over 10 years now and in the mean
time hundreds or thousands developers / code writers / designers / students
/ teachers are all using

    M-g to mean goto-line

Is there no hope to see the 'facemenu-keymap moved to another key and have
the goto-line solely for M-g? It really cannot be replaced by M-x compile /
M-x grep or other specialized modes that offer "direct to line" jump
commands. Line numbers can come from many outside sources, like:

    o   Remote sessions; you're editing two copies of Version controlled 
        files
    o   Other programming languages; Like PHP which display errors and
        line numbers in web page itself (can't use Emacs)
    o   Numerous other utilities (like Web link checkers, when you
        edit the file in Emacs)

To make it short: from accessibility point of view, the goto-line
functionality would be far more important and widely used in everyday Emacs
session and ad hoc use, than the current facemenu-keymap functionality. 

Jari









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