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Subject: |
24.0.50; NEWS item "Selection changes" |
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Date: |
Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:56:40 -0700 |
The NEWS item is woefully incomplete. It doesn't explain much of
anything about the selection changes for Emacs 24 - and they are
radical changes.
Among other things, NEWS should detail the differences from the
previous behavior, and explain clearly how to return to the
previous behavior (exactly, completely).
It is not enough to just give one-liners for a few variables,
such as "`x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil."
This should be obvious. Users and user-level descriptions should
come first, before implementation changes are made.
In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
of 2010-09-20 on 3249CTO
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (4.4) --no-opt --cflags
-Ic:/imagesupport/include'
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--- Begin Message ---
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Subject: |
Re: bug#7196: 24.0.50; NEWS item "Selection changes" |
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Date: |
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:02:54 +0200 |
> From: "Drew Adams" <address@hidden>
> Cc: <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:49:06 -0700
>
> > > The NEWS item is woefully incomplete. It doesn't explain much of
> > > anything about the selection changes for Emacs 24 - and they are
> > > radical changes.
> > >
> > > Among other things, NEWS should detail the differences from the
> > > previous behavior, and explain clearly how to return to the
> > > previous behavior (exactly, completely).
> >
> > The new text is reproduced below. If it is good enough, this bug
> > report can be closed.
>
> Thanks for taking a stab at it. Some suggestions and questions below.
>
> For info, are the following statements correct?
Most of the time, but not always, depending on customizations.
Why is that important?
> #1 needs to also say something about the other systems, which do not support a
> separate primary: e.g. do they put the selection on the clipboard? the kill
> ring? Where do they put it?
They do nothing and don't put the text anywhere outside Emacs.
> > Only commands that kill text or copy it to the
> > kill-ring (C-w, M-w, C-k, etc.) put the killed text into the
> > clipboard. Selected text is put into the primary selection (on
> > systems, such as X, that support the primary selection
> > separately from the clipboard).
>
> Is it (a) "put into the primary selection" or (b) "becomes the primary
> selection"?
We use "put text into primary" and "set the primary with the text"
interchangeably.
> I.e., does it replace the existing primary or is it added
> (prepended/appended) to it? I'm guessing (b), and that this is different from
> the kill ring.
It replaces the old content.
> I don't know about the clipboard - is it a list or ring, like the
> kill ring?
It's a single buffer.
> Anyway, if in some cases we replace what was in some location
> and in other cases we add to it, those cases need to be distinguished. "Put
> into" implies a container of a collection.
I believe every user nowadays knows what happens with text that is put
into the clipboard or the primary selection. Anyway, NEWS entries are
not for explaining these issues.
> What happens to selected text on systems that do _not_ support a primary
> selection separate from the clipboard?
Nothing. They stay Emacs selections.
> Please add that info - don't just say what happens for X.
There's nothing to tell. This functionality does not exist on non-X
systems, so whatever happens on X does not happen elsewhere.
> > Similarly, Emacs by default does not retrieve text from the
> > clipboard when the mouse (e.g., mouse-2) is used for pasting text
> > selected in another application.
>
> Say here where it _is_ retrieved from for the mouse, before going on to talk
> about retrieval from the clipboard.
I transposed the two sentences, although I don't think a distance of
one sentence obfuscates the meaning enough to be confusing.
> Why "in another application"? If not also true for text selected in Emacs,
> then
> state also what the case for that text is.
I set out to describe changes wrt exchange of text between Emacs and
other applications. This is what this NEWS entry is about; it is not
about selected text in Emacs in general.
> > Mouse commands that paste text retrieve text from the primary
> > selection, on systems that support it separately from the clipboard.
>
> And retrieved from where on other systems?
Not retrieved at all.
> > In other words, the default behavior is that mouse gestures that
>
> Mouse actions - mouse gestures are typically thought of as something
> different.
"Mouse gestures" is frequently used terminology.
> > while keyboard commands that kill/copy and paste text work with the
> clipboard.
>
> I wouldn't say "copy", since there are different kinds of copy.
The "text" part in "kill/copy text" should disambiguate that.
> > This change also means that the "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items of
> > the menu-bar "Edit" menu are now exactly equivalent to, respectively
> > M-w, C-w, and C-y.
>
> I didn't realize that BTW. That means that on Windows they are _not_
> equivalent
> to the Windows menus of the same names.
Why not? I think they are.
> > To get back the previous behavior, whereby mouse gestures
>
> Just mouse _selection_, no? Not also mouse-2 (paste).
The part after "whereby" describes what behavior I had in mind.
> Be clear - to get back the previous behavior, _set them to_ t (or whatever the
> value is). Don't just say customize them; say what to customize them to.
I added non-nil.
> > If you don't want Emacs to put the text into the clipboard, only to
> > the primary selection, additionally customize
> > `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
>
> I'm lost now.
Not clear why.
> It's not clear, to start out with, what "the previous behavior" was.
The "whereby..." part says what it was.
> You made
> it clear that now selecting with the mouse sets the primary but not also the
> clipboard or the kill ring. What's not clear is what the previous behavior
> was
> (all its aspects) and therefore what each of the options is for - which
> part(s)
> of the previous behavior each restores.
Detailed description of the previous behavior is outside the scope of
NEWS entries. Especially since the previous behavior was confusingly
inconsistent on X.
> > These changes in the default behavior are reflected in the default
> > values of several variables:
>
> Maybe it would help to start with that.
We will risk losing the reader before she gets to the important parts.
> > It also accepts a new value, `only', which means to only set the
> > primary selection for temporarily active regions (usually made by
> > mouse-dragging or shift-selection).
>
> BTW, why `only' and not `temporarily' or `immediate' or `on-the-fly' or some
> such?
I don't know why, I just documented it.
> > *** `mouse-2' is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
> > Previously, it was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click' (which is now
> > unbound by default.
> ^
> )
>
> What's the difference in _behavior_? Why make readers look up each of those
> commands in order to understand what's changed?
Because that's what we do in general in NEWS: give the reader enough
info to go and find the details by using documentation commands.
Anything else would bloat NEWS to unreasonable proportions.
> > *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
> > This variable exists only on X; its default value was t in previous
> > versions.
>
> What does it do?
The doc string tells the whole story.
> > *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
>
> What's the consequence for user-visible behavior?
I don't know. And neither do others, I think -- this functionality is
long obsolete and unused.
I fixed the typos you pointed out, thanks.
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