Subject: bug#1305: Please disable the audible bell by default, to avoid discouraging newbies in crowded offices and elsewhere

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:32:53 +0200

> Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:51:13 -0500
> From: "Jason Spiro" <[email-masked]>
> Cc: 
> 
> By default, Emacs makes an audible beep every time the user makes an
> error.  It would be great if you could please change the default
> either:
> 
> 1.  To not make any audible or visible bell when the user makes an
> error.  (This would be best.)

Many other GUI applications beep under some circumstances that need
user attention.

> B.  Most apps beep only when something very bad happens.  But Emacs
> beeps even upon minor mistakes like scrolling past end of buffer, or
> pressing an unassigned key.  It even beeps on non-mistakes like
> pressing C-g.  The amount of beeping may make users uncomfortable.

Maybe we should simply revisit the places where we bitch-at-user, and
remove the beep from some of them.

But I don't see anything bad in beeping under extreme circumstances,
and don't support disabling it entirely.

> You might say, "But if not for the beep, users won't notice errors".
> No.  They will notice.  Human eyes notice significant onscreen changes
> (perhaps 3 words or more) easily.

The problem is, without the beep, the screen sometimes does not change
at all.  And that is BAD, from the HE point of view, at least IMO.