Hi all,

  In hinting mode, where dom nodes like links are annotated with visible
numbers (hints), and you are prompted to either type a number or
substrings of link text, Conkeror is able to automatically select an
element when the hints list has been narrowed down to a single possible
match.  How quickly it automatically selects this single match, thus
exiting the hints mode interaction, is controlled by the variable
hints_auto_exit_delay.  The default is 500 milliseconds.  If you set it to
0, that means it will never automatically select a match, and you must
always hit return.

  Recently I was teaching someone about the hinting system, and how you
can select a link by typing a substring of link text.  The person said
that they never used that feature because Conkeror would behave
unpredictably if they either made a typo or typed too many characters.  In
the first instance, Conkeror might automatically follow the wrong link
without the user realizing what they did wrong.  In the second instance,
Conkeror might automatically follow the right link, but the user could
still typing because they were not being careful enough, and their extra
keystrokes would run unintended commands.

  I think this person made a very good point.  The default behavior should
not put the user in the position of having to react to UI events that they
did not intend to happen.  We strive for Conkeror to have a "proactive"
user interface, rather than a "reactive" one.  Therefore I propose that
the default value of hints_auto_exit_delay be changed to 0, so that by
default, the user always has to hit return to end a hints interaction, and
Conkeror's behavior with respect to this mode be 100% predictable and
dependable.

  Shall I make this change?  Thoughts?

-- 
John Foerch
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