Re: Key prefix reserved for users in Gnus

[Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>]

On Wed, Apr 12 2006, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>> IMHO, it would be nice to declare one of these keys as "reserved
>> for users" to avoid that users override standard Gnus bindings.
>> I'd vote for `v'.  Opinions?
>
> I rebind standard bindings all the time if the binding is something I
> don't use, so I don't really see the point.  

I do the same, but I wouldn't recommend it to novice users.  The main
point is that we can guarantee that Gnus won't bind `v' in the future.
The rationale is the same as for `C-c [letter]' and <F5>-<F9> in
Emacs:

,----[ (info "(emacs)Keymaps") ]
|    As a user, you can redefine any key; but it is usually best to stick
| to key sequences that consist of `C-c' followed by a letter.  These
| keys are "reserved for users," so they won't conflict with any properly
| designed Emacs extension.  The function keys <F5> through <F9> are also
| reserved for users.  If you redefine some other key, your definition
| may be overridden by certain extensions or major modes which redefine
| the same key.
`----

> Has there been any requests for a reserved user-defined key?  I
> mean, one key is just, er, so little.  :-)

User often wrote something like "I hit `w' and then Gnus will ..."
and later it turned out that `w' isn't stop-page-breaking but some
combination of `W q' and `W w'.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
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