Re: [Bug-readline] For users of the "vi" keymap, please enable "show-mode-in-prompt" by default

[Chet Ramey]

On 12/12/14 11:25 AM, Jason Spiro wrote:
> The new bash 4.3 and readline 6.3 include a new user-settable
> variable:  "show-mode-in-prompt".  It was designed for people who use
> readline's vi keymap.  It adds a character to the beginning of the
> prompt, showing whether readline is in "command mode" or "insert
> mode".
> 
> Thank you for adding this useful feature to readline.  Unfortunately,
> it's off by default.  And so only those who know about the feature
> will get to take advantage of it.
> 
> I would imagine that the vast majority of vi keymap users will want it to be 
> on.

Maybe.  Nobody has any data to say whether that's so, though.  There
certainly hasn't been a flood of requests to enable it by default.

> I wonder if you could please enable it by default?  This way, anytime
> that a user enables readline's vi keymap, the mode indicator will
> instantly appear.  Anyone who doesn't want it can edit their
> ~/.inputrc file and disable it themselves.

I will keep it in mind for a future version.  I've been burned more often
by features that I enable by default when they are introduced than
features I changed to be enabled by default in later versions as the
result of user requests.

> P.S.  Thank you very much for maintaining bash and readline --
> highly-featureful, well-documented software packages that numerous
> people rely on every single day.

Thanks for your kind words.  I appreciate them.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    address@hidden    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/