GNU bug report logs - #37700
27.0.50; undo mouse-drag-and-drop-region ineffective

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Message #23 received at 37700 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mattias Engdegård <mattiase <at> acm.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: martin rudalics <rudalics <at> gmx.at>, 37700 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#37700: 27.0.50; undo mouse-drag-and-drop-region ineffective
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2019 19:18:51 +0200

11 okt. 2019 kl. 16.43 skrev Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>:
> 
> Given that the region can be easily deactivated, I'm not sure I see
> the sense in introducing options that selectively disable
> region-sensitive behavior of specific commands.

When the user doesn't like the result of an operation, be it a change of mind or a mistake, the first logical reaction is to undo. Many users if not most are unaware that undo in Emacs is restricted to an active region, and even if they know, they are not likely to think of it before instinctively pressing the well-learned undo key.

One reason is that no other editor works like this; another is that almost all other operations that can be undone either deactivate the region or take place wholly inside it, so there is no reason for the user to care about that quirk.

Moreover, users are often aware from experience with other software that the time to undo an action is immediately afterwards, with no other potentially inhibiting action in-between. Requiring a specific undo-enabling action is therefore doubly hostile.

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