Re: cua-mode and the tutorial

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     In any case, I think that emacs should simply reject to run the
>     tutorial if VIPER is enabled
>
> I tend to agree.  And I think it should be the same for CUA mode.

The only key-binding in the tutorial which CUA mode really messes up
is C-v.  But that is the first key which the user is asked to type.

Other than that, the tutorial is quite useful even for users of CUA!
So one approach is to just bind locally bind cua-enable-cua-keys to
nil in the tutorial buffer and make a note like this:

  The purpose of the tutorial is to teach you the basic, standard
  Emacs key bindings.  Therefore, CUA mode's C-z C-x C-c and C-v
  bindinds have been disabled in this tutorial buffer.  [Details]

We could do similar things for viper, ie.

  The purpose of the tutorial is to teach you the basic, standard
  Emacs key bindings.  Therefore, VIPER mode's key bindinds have been
  disabled in this tutorial buffer.  [Details]

And if both viper and cua are enabled, something like

  The purpose of the tutorial is to teach you the basic, standard
  Emacs key bindings.  Therefore, CUA and VIPER mode's key bindinds
  have been disabled in this tutorial buffer.  [Details]


And if other key bindings have been disabled:

  The purpose of the tutorial is to teach you the basic, standard
  Emacs key bindings.  Therefore, some non-standard key bindinds
  have been disabled in this tutorial buffer.  [Details]

The [Details] button will open a *Help* window which shows all the
differences in key bindings.

> I don't see much point in teaching an absolute beginner standard Emacs
> if that is not what he will get when he runs Emacs normally.

True, but it is still good to know about C-b C-f C-n and C-p !!!


> Another idea occurs to me: display the list of changed bindings
> together with a message like this:
>
>     The tutorial won't work for you, because someone
>     has customized your Emacs, changing these basic commands.
>     Probably whoever set up Emacs for you did it in a nonstandard way.
>     Please ask him to teach you to use this nonstandard Emacs
>     or else ask him to change your Emacs setup back to standard.
>
> That has the benefit of being simple, avoiding all the problems
> people are talking about now, and encouraging people not to
> customize Emacs when they set it up for others.


Actually the last example I gave above may cover all cases, i.e.
show the following paragraph at the beginning of the tutorial
and disable all non-standard bindings in the tutorial:

  The purpose of the tutorial is to teach you the basic, standard
  Emacs key bindings.  Therefore, some non-standard key bindinds
  have been disabled in this tutorial buffer.  [Details]

The [Details] button will open a *Help* window which shows all the
non-standard key bindings.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk