The Modernization of Emacs: terminology buffer and keybinding

[Twisted]

On Jun 21, 12:09 pm, Robert Uhl <eadmun... at NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
> Twisted <twisted... at gmail.com> writes:
>
> >> > I have that exact URL now --
> >> >http://www.asktog.com/columns/027InterfacesThatKill.html
>
> >> Utterly unrelated to Emacs.
>
> > I think it is quite relevant. Clunky computer interfaces may not be so
> > dramatically dangerous, but they certainly can hamper productivity.
>
> You're quite right.  Windows/Mac user interfaces are so clunky that they
> massively hamper productivity.

This is a joke, right?

> Emacs, OTOH, enables it.  For example,
> C-s is search forward; C-r is search backward ('reverse'); C-M-s is
> search forward for a regular expression; C-M-r is search backward for a
> regular expression.

Aside from the collision with the standard in the case of C-s (should
be save focused document if it has unsaved changes), these present no
problem. The inability to find and use them without memorizing all
those keystrokes does present a problem.

> A Windows or Mac editor would have C-s for save,
> and that's it.  It might have C-f for find, but it'd pop up a dialogue
> instead of offering an interactive search, causing a mental context
> switch.

Eh? In other words, it works the way it's supposed to. That dialogue
will ordinarily be modeless but floating, so you can get it out of the
way or use it to navigate the document, then edit the document without
having to close the dialogue, and avoid the dialogue disappearing
behind other things. New search can be typed in at the drop of a hat.
Some editors have regular expression searches. All have a
straightforward substring search. Generally if there's anything in the
least arcane (e.g. regular expression searches) there's a ? button to
pop up help, which goes directly to the search help. You can read this
and tab back to the search dialogue with ease, and get them side by
side without any mess or fuss. Of course the dialog offers search
forward and usually search backward. And it normally also offers
search-AND-REPLACE, to boot.

Is this somehow not "interactive" enough for you? Versus having to
memorize a bunch of keys. It also means no esc-meta-alt-ctrl-shift BS,
as the document window needs to have only a few bindings, such as C-f
and C-s, and only the one (C-f) for search; all the search bindings in
the one window in emacs get replaced by just one binding in the
document window and a bunch applicable to the find dialogue. And the
find dialogue can be operated without knowing the bindings by mouse,
and the bindings can be seen directly in the find dialogue by
underlined letters on button labels (see that underlined N in "find
Next"? It means you can hit alt-N while the dialogue has focus,
followed by alt-tab to jump to the document with the next occurrence
selected, or alt-N repeatedly to jump to later occurrences until you
see the one you want, just in case you have rodent allergies).

It has useful key bindings. It is also wise enough to make learning
them optional, so you can learn the ones that speed up your most
common tasks and spare the effort otherwise, where it would consume
more time than it would eventually save you (less common tasks). With
an emacs type interface, you only get to ignore the key bindings for
commands you will NEVER use, rather than ones you use but
infrequently. Forgetting the latter means a trip to the help every
time, also.

> Searching would interrupt one's flow of thought rather than being part of it.

Where does this come from?