Re: [Request]: Change keyboard shortcuts to more standard

[Benno Schulenberg]

Op 29-02-2020 om 15:50 schreef Zach DeCook:
>> > I don't advocate changing the *main* keystrokes.

But below you advocate the changing of ^O, ^X, and ^W, which to me
are pretty main keystrokes in nano.

> Here are my suggestions for the time-being:
> 
> * ^Q Quit (exit)
> * ^O Open file (read file into new buffer)
> * ^Z Undo
> * ^Y Redo
> * ^F Find (whereis)
> * ^X not bound
> * ^V not bound
> * ^W not bound

Are you suggesting that these become the default bindings?  But...
how do you think long-time users of nano would react when suddenly
^W and ^X do not work any more?  Both are pure muscle memory for me.

(And what if ^Q became Exit on a newer nano, but on a server or some
other machine an older nano is installed?  I already stumble almost
every week because on those older nanos ^S does not work.)

Also, how would I now start a backward search, or save a file under
a different name?  Suggesting rebindings is fine, but all existing
functions need to stay accessible.

> I think this change is necessary as users coming from a desktop environment
> associate ^W with "Close window". With the current (nano 4.8) behavior, 
> pressing
> ^W not only does *not* close the window,

"Closing a window" does not make sense in nano.  For what it's worth:
^W does not close the window in vim or emacs either.

> Unbinding ^X and ^V have similar motivations: desktop environment users expect
> them to cut and paste, but their current behavior is jarring.
> Changing ^X to cut would hurt  users familiar to nano, so unbinding is best.
> Current behavior of ^C is not jarring, so it doesn't need to change.

This seems strange to me: with ^Q, ^F, ^Z, ^Y you want to make things
easier for desktop users.  But then you don't go all the way and don't
make ^X, ^C, and ^V do what desktop users expect.

> Setting M-Z to Suspend (removing toggle suspension) is very logical. Users who
> like to suspend are already using it (M-Z ^Z) to suspend,

Users who like to suspend will have 'set suspend' in their nanorc.
(And users of Debian have this line by default in their /etc/nanorc,
so for them ^Z always works.)

Benno

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature