Re: Adding refactoring capabilities to Emacs

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   >> Note: Files are not saved automatically, because this is a different
   >>        concern.
   >
   > "Not saving files automatically" is a power-user approach too.
   >
   > We have that in query-replace and naturally in
   > xref-query-replace-in-results too, but having a large refactoring across
   > many files end up in a not-synced-to-disk condition is a complication. Not
   > everyone knows about save-some-buffers and auto-revert-mode.

   This is a real problem.  Diff mode requires typing a long sequence of
   'C-c C-a C-c C-a C-c C-a C-c C-a ...' to apply the whole diff.

Can't that be solved using something like,

(goto-char (point-min))
(while (not (eobp))
  (diff-apply-hunk))

Or some such and have it bound to something sensible, maybe collecting
the files it touched for a later save.

   A possible solution would be to support a region by 'C-c C-a'.

A region might not be a valid thing to apply -- it is better to work
with hunks.

   Then it will be possible to activate the region on the whole buffer
   or on a few hunks, and type a single 'C-c C-a'.

   Another problem that the changes are not saved automatically
   on multiple files.  This limitation forces to use tricks like
   'M-| git apply RET' after selecting the whole diff buffer with 'C-x h'
   or a region of the diff buffer.  A "poor man's auto-save".