Re: transient

[Howard Melman]

Joost Kremers <address@hidden> writes:

> On Mon, May 18 2020, Richard Stallman wrote:
>>   > I like it very much because it helps see the rationale behind
>>   > keybinding. After a while you get to learn the bindings for the
>>   > commands you use the most and you can easily explore
>>   > new commands.
>>
>> For those that know Transient -- do you think it would provide that
>> benefit too?
>
> Well, which-key simply displays existing keybindings. A package author
> doesn't have to do anything, which-key just works.
>
> Transient OTOH defines its own key sequences, so you can't use it to
> show users existing keybindings. If a package author wants their
> package to work with transient, they have to define transient menus
> for all functionality they want to expose.

Agreed. I've used both. which-key let's me explore existing
bindings with no effort.  Type C-x r and wait a second and
see all the rectangle and register commands. It was great
for learning the M-s and M-g keymaps when they were added.

which-key has been very helpful for learning bindings and I
think it would be great addition to core. Though for a busy
keymap it can take a second to read it to find what you
want. The C-h map is a perfect example. 

I've written a few transients that I've found useful,
including one for help and others for customize, ediff,
frame commands and one that toggles a ton of different minor
modes and visual features. Unlike which-key, transient
allows you to specify the order and groupings of bindings
when activated which can make scaning and learning them much
easier

hydra is a similar package to transient in that you can
define such temporary keymaps and customize a help display
that's shown while using it.  It has advantages and
disadvantages but so far I've prefered transient.

-- 

Howard