[PATCH] Restore original keybinding ('r' = reply-to-all)

David Bremner david at tethera.net
Wed Jun 27 17:06:34 PDT 2012


On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:55:53 -0700, Jameson Graef Rollins <jrollins at finestructure.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 27 2012, Carl Worth <cworth at cworth.org> wrote:
> > Since the beginning of time, the emacs interface provided a keybinding
> > of 'r' to reply to a message, (and originally, all recipients).
> >
> > Then, before release 0.12 the emacs interface acquired a new
> > reply-to-sender only feature. In commit
> > f02b475fa781bb5df3358c73213e7633a99f016e the new feature was put onto
> > the original keybinding, (and reply-to-all was moved to 'R').
> >
> > This restores the original keybinding and uses the new keybinding for
> > the new feature.

My bias is probably apparent in that I pushed the original patch...

I think the there is potential for unfortunate mistakes with either set
of bindings. On the one hand sending replies to unintended people can be
very embarrassing. On the other hand, forgetting to reply to the group
can also be problematic.  The latter is easier to correct, _if_ it is
detected.

When we discussed this earlier, there were people who supported both
options as default. I broke the tie based on my experience with other
mailers, and the fact that apparently I worry more about sending things
to too many people than to too few. Obviously Carl would have chosen
differently.

It would be easy enough to add a customization variable to swap the
outcomes of r and R; iirc this is what wanderlust (or maybe VM) does. It
seems that would not really make people any happier, since the complaint
is not that it is hard to do the keybindings, but that the bindings
changed.

I do worry that by changing back, we annoy a whole new set of
people. I'm not worried for myself; I can add the equivalent keybindings
to my .emacs. I do (hypothetically) sympathize with people who just got
used to the new behaviour and are surprised again.

Anyway, if there is consensus that changing back is the right thing to
do, then I can live with that.

d





More information about the notmuch mailing list