Re: On keybindings and the slow erosion of help's utility

On Sun, Apr 5, 2026, 8:56 AM Óscar Fuentes via Emacs development
discussions. <[email protected]> wrote:

> Eli Zaretskii <[email protected]> writes:
>
> >> From: Óscar Fuentes <[email protected]>
> >> Cc: emacs-devel <[email protected]>
> >> Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:27:07 +0200
> >>
> >> But now I wonder why you and Stefan care so much about this issue. In
> >> what cases we use `C-h k` or `C-h c` ? It never occurred to me "Oh,
> >> right now I have the urge to know what `C-c C-w` does in this buffer."
> >> Actually, the only time I used `C-h k` was when fishing for some
> >> sequence to bind a command and even then M-x describe-bindings is
> >> better.
> >
> > If you almost never use "C-h c" and "C-h k", then I'm beginning to
> > understand why you think the issues discussed here are non-issues.  I
> > use these commands all the time, FWIW.
>
> You are an Emacs maintainer, so highly non-representative of any
> practice related to probing Emacs internals.
>
>
>
I used to agree with this and was lobbying for helpful.el's inclusion, but
I have since reconsidered Eli's position.

It is better to support the unique parts of Emacs and reward those who have
given mind share to learning them. For those who want more 90s-style
pop-ups or 2000s-style externalized UI argumentation (like LSP), those
options could be made globally respected as well. However, the unique
favors of Emacs, such as the universality of C-h, should remain cardinal
and default.

Best regards,
Corwin Brust