GNU bug report logs - #1305
All code that currently beeps should use visual bell instead

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From: Juri Linkov <juri <at> jurta.org>
To: Chong Yidong <cyd <at> stupidchicken.com>
Cc: Giuseppe Scrivano <gscrivano <at> gnu.org>,
        Per Starbäck
 <per <at> starback.se>,
        1305 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, emacs-devel <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug#1305: Beeping (was: Emacs for new users)
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:35:27 +0200

>>>> * beeping is often disturbing and unexpected, in particular for
>>>> scrolling past the beginning or end of the
>>>>   buffer with the scroll wheel. (I agree. That's hardly an error.)
>>>
>>> yes, I agree with you, beeping is often disturbing.  You can disable it,
>>> changing the value of visible-bell to t:
>
>> This is bug#1305.  That discussion never came to a conclusion.
>
> One complication, now that I recall, is that we really do want to signal
> an error for beginning-of-buffer and end-of-buffer, so that keyboard
> macros will terminate.
>
> The problem is that we have no mechanism for telling Emacs not to ring
> the bell for certain classes of errors.

I suggest to implement this mechanism by adding a new symbol property,
e.g. `error-bell' by analogy with properties `error-message' and
`error-conditions', with possible values t, nil and `visible'.

And to put this property with the value nil on `beginning-of-buffer',
`end-of-buffer' and `keyboard-quit' - most annoying beeping commands.

> But I'm not sure Emacs should even be in the bell-ringing business,
> anyway; it's a barbaric practice, and an echo-area message IMHO
> suffices.

Yes, this practice comes from ancient times of beeping keyboards :-)

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/

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