While thinking about the key-binding problems we have in vc-annotate it
occurred to me that it should use a view-mode minor mode, but rather it
should inherit from a sort of view-mode major mode, so it can override
its key-bindings. And it occurred to me that it should be called
`special-mode' and should probably be used by most "special" major modes
(those that set the mode-class property to `special').
So I'm considering adding to subr.el a simple parent major mode:
(defvar special-mode-map
(let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
(suppress-keymap map)
(define-key map "q" 'quit-window)
(define-key map " " 'scroll-up)
(define-key map "\C-?" 'scroll-down)
(define-key map "?" 'describe-mode)
(define-key map ">" 'end-of-buffer)
(define-key map "<" 'beginning-of-buffer)
(define-key map "g" 'revert-buffer)
map))
(put 'special-mode 'mode-class 'special)
(define-derived-mode special-mode nil "Special"
"Parent major mode from which special major modes should inherit."
(setq buffer-read-only t))
The above is 100% guaranteed thoroughly untested (written directly in
this *mail* buffer), so it's just a rough approximation, but should give
you some idea of where I'm going.
Any comment?