Re: Emacs Survey: Toolbars

[Christopher Dimech]

> Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 6:54 AM
> From: "Richard Stallman" <rms@gnu.org>
> To: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>
> Cc: larsi@gnus.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: Emacs Survey: Toolbars
>
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>   >   Rather than arguing about having a toolbar or not, allow the
>   > user to introduce a toolbar icon and associate with it a specific command.
>
> I am not sure what that means, or how it would be different from the
> current state of affairs.  Would you please describe concreretely
> what feature you're proposing?

Currently one defines a keybinding using "global-set-key" or "add-hook"
in their init file.   Or by using "M-x global-set-key" or something similar.
One then attaches a function, another keybinding or whatever to the user
selected key sequence.

Ok , I will tell you about it.  A User Styled Toolbar.  You name an icon
(rather than a keybind) and associate with it the command (which can be an
elisp function - emacs or user defined).  Same functionality as keybinding
but achieved by pressing an icon in the icon tool bar.  Perhaps the icon can
show text or an icon image (using a name from a pre-defined set).

Functionality can be programmed by the user using elisp.  We just provide
a basic library of utilities so even beginners in elisp can just copy and
paste from a basic template and adjust accordingly.  Same as we are doing
with keybindings.  This will cater to those who want to use the mouse rather
than keypresses.  There could be several reasons for that: Repetitive Strain
Injury, Illness, or Personal Injury.  I can relate to that when I injured my
shoulder blade, arm and wrist, a year ago, and could only use the mouse with
a program that performs clicks and a virtual keyboard.  Deciding the default
behaviour of the toolbar is not important.  But phasing it out or stop work
on it based on a cohort of people who say they do not want it, would be a grave
mistake.  But you don't have to listen to me of coarse.

I have also suggested making modus-themes the dafault face for emacs.  I am 
reviewing
the WCAG AAA International Standard with Protesilaos Stavrou for finding bugs, 
and
extend functionality and capability,

I also remember encouraging Jose Marchesi on his Recutils Project back in 2013. 
 I knew
he was on to something and offered to be its maintainer when he  stopped having 
interest
in it.  Today, Gnu Recutils is back under active development and has been 
adopted as part
of the infrastructure of guix and GNUnet.




Regards
Christopher



> --
> Dr Richard Stallman
> Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
> Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
> Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
>
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