Re: Enabling Transient Mark Mode by default

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Whenever I use "emacs -Q" or some similar "vanilla Emacs", the first
>> thing that I'm urged to do is M-x transient-mark-mode (and it was
>> already N°1 back when fotn-lock-mode wasn't the default).
>> 
>> Of course, I'm sure I'd be able to learn to live without it.  It seems
>> like an option affect people *very* strongly, so those who want it
>> *really* want it, and those who don't *really* don't.

> That means that it has presumably some strong advantages and some strong
> disadvantages.  If they are not immediate consequences of one another,
> the controversy might be better resolved by lessening the disadvantages
> rather than having to choose.

If anybody has an idea how to reduce the disadvantage of tmm, I'm
all ears.  `mark-even-if-inactive' is already set, so most things work
exactly as before (other than visual artifacts).  So all that's left is
the visual "burden" and the cases where the mark is active when you
don't want it.  The visual burden boils down to the choice of colors and
I'll let other people deal with this (I use "grey75", for what it's
worth).

The issue of the mark being active when you don't want it, is
particularly acute for people who push marks for navigation purposes.
Maybe we could make C-SPC C-SPC in tmm push the mark and deactivate it.
That might be sufficient for those people who occasionally push marks
for navigation.  For those who do it often, the best is for them to turn
off transient-mark-mode.


        Stefan