Re: region-active-p

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     If you plan to use this API generally in Emacs, then I guess XEmacs
>     compatibility is a secondary consideration.  If so I would prefer that
>     you use a different name and the semantics for the argument that
>     Stefan proposed
>
> I'm not wedded to any particular name.
>
>     Possible names are `region-usable-p' and `region-nonempty-p'.
>
> Neither one fits quite right.  Whether the region is active is more
> central to the meaning than whether it is nonempty.
>
> Perhaps `region-overrides-p' is a good name.  The decision is whether
> the region should override the normal meaning of the command.
>
> I invite other suggestions.

region-effective-p

I am quite unconvinced that it is a good idea to differentiate the
non-empty case, however.  It is just begging for a wagonload of
commands that behave inconsistently, depending on what the programmer
happened to pick for checking the region.

I think that for Emacs, we should stay with the equivalent of (and
transient-mark-mode mark-active).  If that introduces some slight user
level incompatibility with XEmacs, this is hardly tragic:
zmacs-regions is different from Emacs' region handling, anyway.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum