Re: view/edit large files

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:14:27 -0500 Richard M Stallman <address@hidden> wrote: 

RMS> Describe it in text is what I thought I did.
RMS> I don't have time to implement it, though.

I quote your suggestion here:
> Here's an idea for a UI for editing big files.  First you run M-x grep on
> the file, and display the matches for whatever regexp.  In the *grep*
> buffer you specify a region, which is a way of choosing two matches,
> the ones whose entries contain point and mark.  Then you give a command to 
> edit
> the file from one of the matches to the other.  It marks these matches
> (and the lines containing them) as read-only so that you can't
> spoil the correspondance with the file.  Thus, you can always save this
> partial-file buffer.

> The beginning and end of the *grep* buffer can be used to specify
> that the portion to edit starts or ends at bof or eof.

I didn't understand your suggestion fully initially, sorry.  I think
you're suggesting that the user should pick a "window" between two
places in the file.  Then the user can only edit the file between those
two places.  That `grep' is producing the list of places is not as
important as the idea of having those places.

RMS> Your API seems to be aimed at a lower level,
RMS> so the two could work together.

Yes, I believe so.  I'll try to implement the items I listed and perhaps
someone can use them productively, to implement the UI you suggested or
something else.

Thanks for your help and time.
Ted