>     Terrible.  If I tell that to any new Emacs users, they'll
    >     shake their heads and leave Emacs alone.

    > And when you tell them about mouse-1 plus mouse-3 and all the rest?

    The difference is that you don't need to tell Emacs novices about
    mouse-1+mouse-3 (which I never ever use in Emacs, BTW, I always use
    drag-mouse-1 instead).  OTOH you do have to explain to them why
    they can't just "click to place point" and how to work around it.

Well, I don't want to belabor this point, but mouse-1+mouse-3 behavior does
need introducing, _if_ someone is to use it - people are not likely to
_discover_ that behavior. Double-click behavior is something that many
people will discover without explanation, IMO. Others may disagree...

BTW, I'm a bit surprised that you always drag to select. Do you also not use
two mouse-3 clicks to delete the region? That's another handy operation
(though not basic or essential) that requires some introduction. Unlike
mouse-1+mouse-3, people _are_ likely to discover that on their own, but it
might take them a while to understand just what they've done.

Using the mouse to follow a link and set point are basic operations that
should not require any how-to explanation. Today, we do need to "tell"
novices about mouse-2 and links. Tomorrow, we may unfortunately need to
"tell" them about other ways to use the mouse to do simple things. We should
try to come up with a scheme that leaves the three most basic mouse
operations - setting point, defining the region, and following links -
without need of an explanation. It doesn't sound like we're quite there yet.

Your point is valid, of course, that novices might not need mouse-1+mouse-3.



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