Re: Replacement of spaces in wdired

[martin rudalics]

>     One problem I found is that it allows me to edit the last space in the
>     " -> " string that indicates a symbolic link.
>
>     If I have a symbolic link "a -> b" in the directory I'm editing, I can
>     delete the 2nd space, leaving "a ->b", and when I hit C-c C-c, I end
>     up with "a -> /dev/null".
>
>     Doing a query replace of " " with "." when there are symlinks present
>     also replaces the " " which follows each "->".
>
> Martin, I suggest you install your patch, since it is an improvement.

Chong could you please try to install it.  Below is a hopefully adequate
ChangeLog:

        * wdired.el (wdired-change-to-wdired-mode, wdired-finish-edit)
        (wdired-search-and-rename): Simplify code.
        (wdired-preprocess-files, wdired-preprocess-perms): Make
        read-only property of preceding character rear-nonsticky to
        avoid that it can be modified.  Put old-name and old-link
        properties on character preceding name and replace
        put-text-property by add-text-properties.
        (wdired-get-filename, wdired-get-previous-link): Get old-name
        and old-link properties from character preceding name and
        simplify code.
        (wdired-preprocess-perms, wdired-set-bit, wdired-toggle-bit)
        (wdired-perms-to-number): Make local-map property
        rear-nonsticky to avoid that text following permissions may be
        modified.  Use add-text-properties instead of put-text-property
        when changing a permission bit.
        (wdired-change-to-dired-mode): Remove stickiness properties.

> Then can you fix this other problem?

I couldn't reliably test that.  On Windows the " -> " show up and can be
manipulated iff you install an external package like w32-symlinks.el.
For reasons I never bothered to investigate that package occasionally
screws up my Emacs, hence I refrained from using it.