RE: faq.texi

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Drew!

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, Drew Adams wrote:

>    >Maybe I'm weird, but I do tend to use C-y reasonably often in a
>    >specific circumstance:  when i want to see how well two regions of
>    >text match, I go to the beginning of one, and hit C-y until the search
>    >fails; this could be done with C-w too but it's a lot more tedious for
>    >big regions.

>    I do this, too - more precisely, C-y through
>    one region until the regexp highlighting stops on the other.

>Is this mostly (only?) useful for different areas of the same buffer (since
>you mention isearch highlighting other areas)? I assume you didn't literally
>mean "region" here, but just "section" of text, no?

>For comparing text sections in two different buffers, I usually select them,
>`C-x n n', and use ediff on them. For sections in the same buffer, I
>sometimes paste one section into a new buffer and do the same.

>Maybe your technique would be handier (quicker) in that case, at least to
>find a first difference. But IIUC, the two sections would need to be visible
>simultaneously - e.g. near each other or in different windows.

I often use it in files.diff, when I just can't see what's different
between the two versions.  Often it's things like a space at EOL, or a
leading TAB becoming TAB + 2 spaces, and suchlike.  C-y in isearch is
good for this.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)