RE: Key bindings proposal

[Drew Adams]

>> most people on w32 expects the common standards to work, especially
>> those above.

You privilege compatibility with Windows.  It is often better to privilege
compatibility with Emacs on other platforms.  One of the advantages of Emacs is
that it runs on multiple platforms.  A related advantage is that most of its
default behavior is the same across platforms.  This advantage is felt most, of
course, by users of more than one platform, but it is also an advantage
(simplification) for doc etc.

The Alt key is available on most platforms, and Emacs uses it by default for
Meta. The Window key is available on PC keyboards, but its "common standard"
behavior is generally MS Windows-specific.

It should be a no-brainer that the Emacs default would use Alt (not the Window
key) for Meta on Windows also.

> The point is that one has to use one kind of modifier keys (either the
> alt-keys or windows-keys) for the Emacs meta-key.  It would be good to
> provide the users with a choice in this regard.  

A choice is almost always a good thing.  I support that.  And I agree with you
that it would be bad to change the default to this.

Other things being equal(*), it is desirable to have the same defaults across
multiple platforms.

---
* "Other things being equal..." generally means, "IF other things are/were
equal...".  Yes, it is a bit misleading - it can seem to _assert_ that all other
things are in fact equal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_things_being_equal