Re: A more modest proposal

[Chong Yidong]

Daniel Colascione <address@hidden> writes:

> easy to tell users, "unlike most programs, Emacs does not use C-c,
> C-x, and C-v for copy and paste: Emacs was old when these bindings
> were new, and they're used for something very different in Emacs. But
> Emacs *does* support using Control-Insert, Shift-Delete, and
> Shift-Insert for copy, cut, and paste. So do most other programs;
> learn to use these keys instead."

This sounds vaguely plausible, but I don't think Control-Insert,
Shift-Delete, and Shift-Insert are very well known at all, nor that
people are going to be enthusiastic about switching to these slower
keybindings.

> Right now, pressing C-c by itself simply displays "C-c -"; C-x is
> similar. Novice users would benefit if this message read something
> like "C-c - <waiting for command - C-h for help>" instead so that they
> notice faster that C-c and C-x are very different in Emacs.

Patch welcome.

> (defun undo-or-suspend-emacs ()
>   "Undo if we're in a windowing system, or suspend emacs if we're in a TTY"
>   (interactive)
>   (setq this-command (if window-system 'undo 'suspend-emacs))
>   (call-interactively this-command))

This has the disadvantage that if users learn to rely on C-z to undo,
they will be confused when they try to run Emacs in a terminal and find
that the "undo key" suspends Emacs.