Subject: bug#6774: Cut and paste with C-w/mouse-2 not working?

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 14:36:00 -0700

> > Why not implement your changes ("improvements") as a new, 
> > optional alternative behavior?
> 
> While changing the defaults is certainly a new thing*, I'm 
> sorry, but if you think the _option_ for the behaviour itself
> is new, then you have just been completely tuning it (and
> sometimes heated threads around it) out for some years now.
> Maybe you thought it didn't matter to your 
> platform or something (which would be a perhaps understandable 
> assumption, though a naive one given the way the w32 and ns 
> ports work).
> 
> select-active-regions and x-select-enable-primary  were first 
> added to emacs in late 2007 (rev 83308).  They're in NEWS.23
> 
> mouse-drag-copy-region was apparently added in 2004 (rev 
> 55223)), it's in NEWS.22
> 
> Using them to produce the desired behaviour has also been 
> documented on EmacsWiki/CopyAndPaste since early '08 too, not
> that that's official documentation, just illustrating this is
> not new (people choosing to switch it on are rather less likely
> to do things that break it, though).

I admit that I do not understand well all that you wrote or why you wrote it.
You seem to be trying to show that the behavior you promote is not new, that it
has been available optionally for some time.  OK.

I _thought_ that you were just fixing some real _bugs_.  (And that those fixes
were inappropriate for Windows according to Eli, so they would be reverted.)
This is a _bug_ thread.  Likewise for the other bugs filed wrt the recent
selection changes.

If you were _not_ adding any new behavior, because as you say now the
alternative behaviors in question have long been available optionally, then are
you _only_ trying to change the default behavior to be a previously optional
one?

If so then I have the same objection.  A bug thread is not the place to monkey
with the default behavior of Emacs.

If you want to propose that the default behavior be changed to ABCDE, then
propose that clearly on emacs-devel.  Include a complete description of all of
the behavior changes (consequences) involved, so people can understand clearly
what you're proposing and discuss it.

If the behavior that you want to propose as the new default has been around for
a while and is familiar to people on emacs-devel, then so much the better for
you.  Those who are familiar with it will need less time experimenting with it
and thinking about it in order to decide what they think about it becoming the
default behavior.  But just because someone might be aware of the existence of
an optional behavior does not mean that they have tried it much or thought about
it much.

In any case, if you want to change the default behavior, then please make a
clear proposal on emacs-devel.  Thx.