bug#39902: 28.0.50; Marking in dired with active region

[Michael Heerdegen]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> I still don't understand well.

Oh dear...ok.

> 1. You mark some files in Dired, then open them in
> some other app.  Those files are still marked in
> Dired, I suppose.  Or do you unmark them?  Or
> doesn't it matter?

Typically they are still marked.

> 2. In that app, you do something with the files,
> viewing and manipulating them in the same order
> they had in Dired.  You may even delete some or
> add some new ones.

Yes.

> 3. You're interrupted.  How so - is Emacs closed?

No no.  But I didn't use Emacs in the meantime.  Doesn't that count as
interrupted?

> is the other app closed?

Typically, yes.

> What's the significance of the interruption?

That I'm typically done with a subset of the previously marked files,
and I want to restart the external app or whatever with the rest of the
files, or a subset of them.

> 4. Later (same Emacs session?)

Yes, same session.

> 5. You want to mark, in Dired, some of the files
> you haven't yet worked with in the app.  OK.
>
> "to look at the files in this order"  In what order?

The order the files appear in the dired buffer.

> What's the importance of the order?

If I did not have a look at all of the files in the external app, and
the external app would present the files to me in some different order,
it would be hard to mark "the rest" of the files in dired to continue.

> For example, why wouldn't you just use `g' (to
> refresh the listing, to reflect deleted or added files),

I do that of course.

> then `C-u 99999 m' starting where you left off?

I could do that.  I didn't use to use these keys because I just
... wanted to use the region.  Plus, maybe I don't want to continue with
all of the remaining files but only a subset?

> To be clear, I'm not trying to say you should do
> something different from what you're requesting.

Yeah, and I think this is only just one random personal use case of `m'
with active region, let's not overstate this case.  I expect marking in
dired with region active to always behave the same no matter why I do
it.

> I'm just trying to understand what you want to do and why.

If you didn't understand now I'm willing to pay a flight to Germany so I
can show you ;-)


Michael.