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

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From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, 1305 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, jasonspiro4 <at> gmail.com, Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
Subject: bug#1305: All code that currently beeps should use visual bell instead
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2021 01:06:54 -0500

Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> No, that's not the intent.  The intent is to make the visible bell the
>> default.  To turn it off, you turn off visible-bell, which makes Emacs
>> beep again, and then turn off the speakers.
>
> Indeed.  A good reason to use visible-bell by default is that we have no
> guarantee that the bell can actually be heard (e.g. I usually turn it
> off because I usually consider that a computer should be as close to
> silent as possible, except when I specifically ask otherwise (.e.g
> listing to music or whatching a video)).
>
> The other reason is that the beep can annoy other people than the user,
> whereas the visible-bell is very unlikely to annoy other people than the
> user herself.

(That was 12 years ago.)

So how about setting visible-bell to t by default in Emacs 28?  This
behavior was called "barbaric" by Chong Yidong in 2008, and the
situation hasn't improved since.

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