Re: visual-region-mode?

[Charles A. Roelli]

> From: hw <address@hidden>
> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 03:45:23 +0200
>
> >> Having clarified which operations can be used with a region doesn't mean
> >> that working with a region can be efficiently done.
> >
> > It does for me.  For example, see the output of M-x -region TAB.  By
> > just knowing a smidgeon of these commands, you can work very
> > efficiently with a region, with all the documentation and help Emacs
> > provides.
> 
> That's like saying it doesn't matter how inefficient a procedure is if
> you only have some instructions to perform it.

When these instructions are so simple, they cannot help being
efficient.  But if you reject the main building block they use (the
region, active or not), then it makes sense that you find them
inefficient.

> > If we somehow "disarm" the region by default (as you have
> > suggested), the use of all these commands would be less efficient.
> 
> That was Elis idea, and it doesn't refer to commands implying "region"
> but, IIUC, to how to deal with that users might sometimes want to delete
> a region by inserting characters and sometimes not.

Ok.

> Well, I have delete-active-region and mark-even-if-inactive set to nil
> and am testing this:
> 
> 
> (defun my-exchange-point-and-mark (&optional arg)
>   "Put the mark where point is now, and point where the mark is
> now.  With a prefix argument, toggle the activeness of the
> region.
> 
> This function itself is ignorant of `transient-mark-mode'."
>   (interactive "P")
>   (let ((omark (marker-position (mark-marker))))
>     (if (null omark)
>         (user-error "No mark set in this buffer"))
>     (set-marker (mark-marker) (point))
>     (goto-char omark))
>   (if arg
>       (if mark-active (deactivate-mark)
>       (activate-mark t))))
> 
> 
> Now I have the region fortified and am able to use the mark for
> navigation without making (or unmaking) a selection from the region
> unless I actually want to.

Ok.  If you decided to turn "t-m-m" off, though, how would you use
"my-exchange-point-and-mark" to ever activate the mark again?  In
order for the region to be considered active, "t-m-m" has to enabled
(if only temporarily), hence the current wrangling in
"exchange-point-and-mark" to turn it on temporarily when the user asks
for it.