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Re: line-move-visual


From: Mark Crispin
Subject: Re: line-move-visual
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:12:08 -0000
User-agent: Alpine 2.00 (OSX 1167 2008-08-23)

On Sun, 6 Jun 2010, Uday S Reddy posted:
In the megabytes of debate that has gone on on this issue, I haven't seen a single point mentioned as to why it should move by visual line in the logical line mode. Yet, that is the default in Emacs 23! Worse, it *changes* the semantics of C-n which as, Mark Crispin points out, has been here the 70's.

And breaks key macros.

So, there are three things that an old-timer is annoyed about:
1. Change of established semantics.
2. Inconsistency.
3. Pointlessness.

4. Breaking long-standing key macros and procedures, which in turn leads to file corruption based upon the current screen width (= "random and unpredictable").

Coupled with these real technical issues, there are the attitudinal problems of holier-than-thou, smarter-than-thou and modern-than-thou and what have you.

It seems to be a common problem among some Gen-X types. John Xenakis (a colorful character if ever there was one!) writes a good essay related to the topic:

http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?d=ww2010.i.java080701

In another part of this thread, we have also seen the astonishing idea that the developers don't have to care about what the users want/need. If that is the attitude that open source developers take, then I will be the first to give up open source!

This attitude has always been a problem, but in the past it would be corrected. In a lab where everybody was under one roof, the users would gang up (often with the lead developer) and discipline the offending young developer.

Today, the only recourse is to spawn a fork. The problem is that each fork erodes the credibility of open source. The classic example is BSD, which committed suicide by fork.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.


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