[gtk-list] Re: vi bindings for text widgets

[James Gardiner <jamgard sprintmail com>]

I'm reading this thread with some amusement:

I always thought that key bindings are something the app programmer is
supposed to be concerned about.  If you want to change a core widget, in this
case GtkText, to have Vi bindings only I will refuse to use that widget all
the time...I will have to reimplement a NEW GtkText widget.  If the designers
of GTK+ want to allow key bindings to be user-definable that's much better,
but guess what:  Most newbies will *not* change them.  It has taken me quite a
while to get used to the power of configurable Xresources and .rc files.
Every app has its own way of defining ways for an app to work.  This is "not a
bad thing" in itself, but be prepared for users of your app to send you gobs
of e-mail bemoaning the fact that they accidentally changed "Reformat-text" to
"Delete-text".

Instead, I prefer that some apps use Vi-bindings, some apps have fairly simple
(or not-so-simple) bindings, and that other apps have user-definable bindings.
This will in all likelihood prevent code bloat from feature creep (and yes,
disk bloat from number of editors will probably increase).  If we keep asking
for features from core widgets we will all end up with Vi editors the size of
Microsoft Word.  Instead, concentrate on developing *extra* widgets for your
code, or for distribution, that implement your desired functionality.  If you
doubt the sense in this, look to the market in Windows for components.  Some
of these components are quite complex, but most apps in Windows use just core
functions.  This is the reason VB, Delphi, and now JavaBeans are very popular
development enviroments.  The problem is in maintaining a balance between
reduction of program size, with shared libraries implementing increased core
functionality, and reduced complexity of the libraries themselves.

In short (yeah, right), keep GTK+ fairly simple, add functionality via add-on
widgets, allow configurability on a programmer-desired basis.  While these
things may not be programming utopia, we might just prevent GTK+ from becoming
itself unmaintainable...each new feature can break existing programs.

Yeah, editor bigotry is a religious issue.  I use vim and gvim only because
there isn't anything else that gives me the power without a ten-hour learning
curve.  I don't need an X-only editor.

James Gardiner