GNU bug report logs - #8492
23.3; Time to use a different binding for completion?

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From: David De La Harpe Golden <david <at> harpegolden.net>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: 8492 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Reuben Thomas <rrt <at> sc3d.org>
Subject: bug#8492: 23.3; Time to use a different binding for completion?
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:41:41 +0100

On 20/04/11 15:16, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>>> Since this problem has been around for a long time and no good key has
>>> popped up during this time, I believe that using TAB is the
>>> way forward, which means we need to figure out ways to make it work in
>>> the cases where it currently doesn't.
>> I am inclined to agree that that is the path of least resistance; I
>> think it remains to be demonstrated that two lots of magic can be
>> loaded on to the same key, but I'm prepared to give it a go!
>
> Of course, pursuing this route doesn't preclude pursuing other routes at
> the same time.  So, people should feel free to suggest other keys to use
> for completion.
>

Well, given that the usual mapping on x.org X11 is, for better or worse,

Alt key => Meta
Windows/other-symbol* key => super

then perhaps additionally binding s-TAB out-of-box might be worth 
considering?  I expect it's mostly people with keyboards with such keys 
who have trouble with M-TAB (and also apparently don't like C-M-i and 
ESC TAB).

(Though you might get people then trying to use such a default binding 
as precedent to put all sorts of stuff on s-blah, sigh...)

Uh, but then given w32 emacs apparently sees "lwindow"/"rwindow" instead 
of "super" when you press the windows keys (testing in wine not real 
windows), w32 emacs may also need to be adjusted to map them to 
left/right super by default and treat them as modifiers. Note that such 
a mapping would be consistent with typical x11 as above, but also 
arguably with macosx, where "command" (⌘) is often taken to send super** 
- and when you plug a pc keyboard into a mac, the windows keys become 
"command" by default.  Yes, macosx, gnustep and x11 all allow fairly 
easy adjustment, I'm just talking about out-of-box defaults.

(Of course, I also don't know if windows itself is now using 
WindowsKey-TAB for anything, I know it used not to.)

I'm one of the people who puts any window manager bindings on super in 
the first place (windows key, innit...), obviously easy to do in common 
X11 window managers, so don't need any of this personally (in fact I put 
what windows has on Alt-Tab on Super-Tab so I wouldn't even see it), 
it's just a suggestion.

* You can get keyboards with a penguin there. :-)

** note how  emacs/lisp/term/ns-win-el has a bunch of super bindings 
out-of-box, saying "Here are some Nextstep-like bindings for command key 
sequences."...

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