Re: Buffer-local key-translation-map

[Stefan Monnier]

> function-key-map can be buffer-local, yes.  But nothing actually uses
> that variable.  Its only use is to set the parent of
> local-function-key-map at startup.

Oh, right.

> This could be changed of course, perhaps by making function-key-map not
> actually the parent of local-function-key-map, and teaching key
> translation that if lookup in local-function-key-map fails, it should do
> lookup in function-key-map.

Maybe, but it can be tricky.  The more reliable way would be to first
create a composed keymap using both `local-function-key-map` and
`function-key-map`, and then look *this* up.

> Or maybe the parent of local-function-key-map could be changed to a
> symbol instead of a direct reference?

But a symbol standard for the keymap in the `symbol-function` slot, not
in the `symbol-value` slot, it still can't be buffer-local.

We could add a similar indirection via `symbol-value`, of course.
Not sure it's worth the trouble (I've toyed with the idea a few times,
but each time, it seemed to cover only some of the needs, and the
remaining problems were still significant, so it wasn't all that
useful, IIRC).


        Stefan