'Emacs style' delete line shortcut (CTRL/U) doesn't work correctly in Firefox

Peter Flynn peter at silmaril.ie
Thu Oct 11 22:38:08 UTC 2018


On 11/10/18 22:26, Liam Proven wrote:
[snip]
> This page reflects the mindset of Emacs fans which does irritate me --
> nothing personal, I assure you!

:-) It was a choice at the time which suited me. The alternatives were
too horrifying to contemplate (bi-modal editors, flag characters...)

> I write English for a living, not code. I don't want any features at
> all related to any kind of code handling. 

Right. I write English too, but mostly tech doc, for which I do have a
highly specific set of requirements. And I code a lot, so a vanilla text
editor (eg Notepad) would be worse than useless.

> At the very least I *must* be able to *completely* turn it all off,
> and do so easily, without hunting around. Emacs fails this.
Interesting: i haven't seen that one. It's all off by default.

> I don't live in a text editor. I live in about half a dozen apps,
> constantly switching. I also switch between 3 or 4 computers and OSes
> every day. So the comments about how the editor is central are
> incorrect.

No, for his audience they are valid. I live in a text editor: I rarely
use applications, but I too switch systems and platforms often, so I
require the identical interface everywhere.

> Macros? Bloat. Not needed, for me. 

Quite out of order for your needs. Essential for mine.

> I use many apps across many OSes. They all have the same basic UI --
> the CUA UI.

That would be critical for anyone using them, I assume.

> All use Ctrl-O for Open, Ctrl-P for Print, Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl X/C/V
> for Cut/Copy/Paste, etc.

That's pretty much essential for those users.

> I *require* all apps to conform to this, throughout, everywhere. This
> is not optional. I will not learn special new terms or keystrokes or
> commands for any one app.

Absolutely. I wish more people would insist on this: it might stop
foolish application developers imagining that their weird-ass interface
is going to take over the world in the face of everything else (GIMP
finally realised this, although it took them a while).

> All these are vital considerations for me. None are negotiable in
> exchange for greater power, because any app that doesn't conform can
> be replaced with another of equivalent power, free of charge.

I wish that were true: my former employer's corporate finance
application had one of these "we think this is much better than the
standard" interfaces which drove everyone insane. And you can't change
that kind of application free of charge, unfortunately.

> Emacs fails this test and has failed it in every way for 30 years.

It succeeds on every single test for the type of work I do, over the
same time period, fortunately.

> I do not assert that _my_ reasons apply to everyone. I am just saying
> they apply for me.

Yep, we live in radically different worlds. Fortunately it looks like we
both have working solutions.

///Peter





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