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> it's incredibly difficult Right. I see this point ignored very frequently (sometimes because it's obvious and sometimes because people are being dumb). A l

> it's incredibly difficult Right. I see this point ignored very frequently (sometimes because it's obvious and sometimes because people are being dumb). A lot of the things that would make emacs more like other editors are extremely difficult to retrofit. I expect there is still SOME low-hanging fruit, but a lot of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked, and a lot of the remaining changes that people would like are a lot of work.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
Let's discuss that. Emacs is so flexible it should be possible to do anything. Binding cut/copy/paste functionality to the conventional keys would be trivial. A few rebound key bindings, not a problem, so you're getting at something larger; what is it? BTW the current key bindings are so good because I can do a lot without my hands leaving the keyboard, or even moving off the home keys. That was the very point of choosing them originally AFAIK. I recall learning these new keys many years ago, it was surprisingly fast and when I'd learnt them, amazingly quick to sink into muscle memory.
- alexhutcheson 6y ago
  Unfortunately the rest of the software world settled on keybindings for cut and copy that generate almost the greatest possible pain for Emacs to migrate to them. C-c and C-x are used for dozens of the most important commands. It's technically feasible, but switching would be hard and existing users would be really upset.
  - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
    I assure you I'd never propose to change emacs bindings at all, merely have a switchable alternate set. I think that would be possible? But even if you did so, there's too much else, far deeper that couldn't be amended. I think we agree it's not a credible proposition. I suspect emacs' enormous toolkit can't be exposed consistently without making it inconsistent. I can live with emacs as it is, very happily.
throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
I misread what you were saying, sorry. Too late to delete other post, please ignore it.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago

Let's discuss that. Emacs is so flexible it should be possible to do anything. Binding cut/copy/paste functionality to the conventional keys would be trivial. A few rebound key bindings, not a problem, so you're getting at something larger; what is it? BTW the current key bindings are so good because I can do a lot without my hands leaving the keyboard, or even moving off the home keys. That was the very point of choosing them originally AFAIK. I recall learning these new keys many years ago, it was surprisingly fast and when I'd learnt them, amazingly quick to sink into muscle memory.

alexhutcheson 6y ago
Unfortunately the rest of the software world settled on keybindings for cut and copy that generate almost the greatest possible pain for Emacs to migrate to them. C-c and C-x are used for dozens of the most important commands. It's technically feasible, but switching would be hard and existing users would be really upset.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  I assure you I'd never propose to change emacs bindings at all, merely have a switchable alternate set. I think that would be possible? But even if you did so, there's too much else, far deeper that couldn't be amended. I think we agree it's not a credible proposition. I suspect emacs' enormous toolkit can't be exposed consistently without making it inconsistent. I can live with emacs as it is, very happily.

throwaway_pdp09 6y ago

I misread what you were saying, sorry. Too late to delete other post, please ignore it.