Re: Proposal: new default bindings for winner and windmove

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Daniel.

On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 07:44:19 -0400, Daniel Colascione wrote:


> On June 26, 2024 7:23:38 AM EDT, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> >> From: Jeremy Bryant <jb@jeremybryant.net>
> >> Cc: Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>,  dancol@dancol.org,  acm@muc.de,
> >>   stefankangas@gmail.com,  monnier@iro.umontreal.ca,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> >> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2024 22:26:47 +0100

> >> 1.
> >> I also find that C-x 4 is indeed logical, which makes it easier to remember

> >> 2.
> >> C-x 4 .. works on the terminal/console.  This is important for
> >> preserving functionality of Emacs.

> >I still hope that someone will tell what is exactly the request here,
> >given that windmove-mode is on by default and its commands are
> >autoloaded.

> To be clear, my proposal is to bind C-x 4 <arrow> in the default
> global keymap to the corresponding directional windmove commands and
> to bind the shifted versions of these keys to the state swapping
> versions of these movement commands. IOW, in emacs -Q, C-x 4 LEFT
> should move left.

That doesn't clear up all that much.  The answers to "why?" are missing.
I don't think there need to be such bindings in the default keymap.

As Eli said, windmove is autoloaded, including its command
windmove-default-keybindings.  By default, this binds S-<up> etc., which
strike me as better bindings than C-x 4 <up> etc. for anybody not using
these bindings for anything else.  C-x 4 <up> might be convenient for
those on tty's whose keyboard layout lacks <modifier(s)>-<up>, but
hardly on a GUI Emacs.

Possibly, windmove-default-keybindings could be enhanced to allow a
prefix key binding to be given as an alternative to a set of modifiers.
Possibly.

So, currently, windmove is easily available to anybody that wants it,
and doesn't "waste" the key bindings of those who don't.  Why is the
current state unsatisfactory, and why do you want to make these new
bindings?

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).