Re: PROPOSAL: Repurpose one key and reserve it for third-party packages

[Gregory Heytings]

> > To me what you propose looks pretty close to using customize to set a 
> > foobar-set-global-binding variable that would be used in a call to 
> > global-set-key.
>
> Yes, that could also be done, the precise code that is generated is an 
> open question

But that would be forbidden by the guideline "Don't define 'C-c LETTER' as 
a key in Lisp programs", wouldn't it?

(defcustom foobar-global-key "" "Foobar global key in C-c")
...
(if (length foobar-global-key)
  (global-set-key (kbd (concat "C-c " foobar-global-key) 'foobar-foo-command)))

If that's allowed, then why not this?

(defcustom foobar-global-key "z" "Foobar global key in C-c")
...
(if (length foobar-global-key)
  (global-set-key (kbd (concat "C-c " foobar-global-key) 'foobar-foo-command)))

This is not very different from the first one, and does what the guideline 
forbids, but it could be argued that it does not because it does so only 
conditionally...

> But even considering that, what do you think that the long-term issue 
> is? Do you think that with time, people will be using more and more 
> packages that need global keys?

I do not think, I see.  Just have a look at the starter kits, or at the 
init files of those who make them public.  You'll see that there are many 
packages that need global keys.