RE: Poll about proposed change in DEL (aka Backspace) and Delete

[Drew Adams]

> In general this is a welcome change and I will no longer need the
> following in .emacs: (delete-selection-mode 1)

Not really.  Not if you expect all that  `delete-selection-mode' offers.

The first change proposed in the poll is like one piece of
`delete-selection-mode', but with a twist in one of its default settings: the
DEL key (aka Backspace) deletes without killing.

The second change is like another piece of `delete-selection-mode': it lets you
type to replace the region.

`delete-selection-mode' is more general, and it lets you customize how & which
individual commands (hence keys) interact with it.  E.g., you can tell it that
you want DEL to delete (as in the proposal) instead of kill.  You can make it do
various things related to the region for any keys you want - very flexible,
simple to modify.

Personally, I use `delete-selection-mode' - always have.  I think it should be
the default Emacs behavior.  Previously I argued in favor of
`transient-mark-mode' being turned on by default.  That took a long time, but it
is now the default behavior.

However, I'm not in favor of either of the current proposals, as is.  It is
better for such behavior changes to be contained in one or more well-defined
modes that users can easily recognize and customize.  (Delete-selection is one
such mode.)

[And by default, mouse selection should be treated the same as the ordinary
active region.  This was changed recently, with no poll, unfortunately.
Likewise, interactions between Emacs selection/region and standard paste
buffers/clipboards/selections were changed, with no poll - and it is not obvious
to a user how to customize Emacs to get back the old behavior.]

> However, I'm not certain from a functional point of view how
> delete-selection-mode differs from the proposed change (will it also
> include transient mark mode?).

Transient mark mode is already turned on now in Emacs, by default.  The proposed
change does not implement or replace delete-selection mode.  What it does is
make DEL delete the active region.  The second proposed change lets characters
you type replace the active region.

FWIW, I am very happy to see that Richard has opened a poll for this.  It would
be helpful if the Emacs maintainers did the same for other (and more radical)
changes of behavior that they implement.