Re: Emacs learning curve

[Kim F. Storm]

Miles Bader <address@hidden> writes:

> I don't have any religious objection to CUA keys (well at least the
> C-x/C-c/C-v triumvirate), if there were a practical way of accommodating
> them without excessive problems -- but thus far, despite all the
> vigorous hand-waving and pontificating, nobody has actually come up with
> anything that seems remotely practical.

I have stayed out of this discussion so far ... as the topic seemed to
about enabling CUA by default or not - I have no opinion about that --
having it as an easy to find option on the menus is good enough for me.

However, I do take offence from your statement about CUA not being
"remotely practical". 

Do you actually use CUA mode to a degree where you have practical
experience to backup that statement -- or on what facts do you base your
evaluation of the practical usefulness of CUA?

I have used it for many years now (no surprise), and yes, it does
stumble on me a few times each year -- as it to be expected - but it is
nowhere near being impractical. For every day work -- it just works!

To me, CUA bindings in emacs is about being able to easyly cut and 
paste BETWEEN applications. If you live your entire life inside Emacs,
then CUA binding has no merit on its own.  When you have to
interact with other applications, being able to use the same keys
for cut and paste is invaluable IMO - and far outweighs the tiny
quirks you may experience with CUA mode from time to time.

BTW, the major problem with enabling CUA bindings by default is NOT
C-x and C-c (and the associated hacks), but that it "steals" the C-v
binding permanently.  At least you have to rewrite all the tutorials...

-- 
Kim F. Storm  http://www.cua.dk