Re: Documentation of transient-mark-mode is sloppy, wrong, and confused.

[Lennart Borgman]

On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 4:34 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull <address@hidden> wrote:
> Alan Mackenzie writes:
>
>  > Does XEmacs have a definition of an "active region"?  ;-)
>
> Yes, although it's a little hard to find because of the heritage of
> XEmacs in the Lisp machine world.  C-h v zmacs-regions RET sez:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> `zmacs-regions' is a built-in boolean variable.
>  -- loaded from "/playpen/src/XEmacs/xemacs/src/editfns.c"
>
> Value: t
>
> Documentation:
> *Whether LISPM-style active regions should be used.
> This means that commands which operate on the region (the area between the
> point and the mark) will only work while the region is in the ``active''
> state, which is indicated by highlighting.  Executing most commands causes
> the region to not be in the active state, so (for example) C-w will only
> work immediately after activating the region.
>
> More specifically:
>
>  - Commands which operate on the region only work if the region is active.
>  - Only a very small set of commands cause the region to become active:
>   Those commands whose semantics are to mark an area, like `mark-defun'.
>  - The region is deactivated after each command that is executed, except that:
>  - "Motion" commands do not change whether the region is active or not.
>
> set-mark-command (C-SPC) pushes a mark and activates the region.  Moving the
> cursor with normal motion commands (C-n, C-p, etc) will cause the region
> between point and the recently-pushed mark to be highlighted.  It will
> remain highlighted until some non-motion command is executed.

This sounds good to me and is easy to read.


> exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x) activates the region.  So if you mark a
> region and execute a command that operates on it, you can reactivate the
> same region with C-x C-x (or perhaps C-x C-x C-x C-x) to operate on it
> again.

That seems useful. (But the cua hint is a bit obscure.)


> Generally, commands which push marks as a means of navigation (like
> beginning-of-buffer and end-of-buffer (M-< and M->)) do not activate the
> region.  But commands which push marks as a means of marking an area of
> text (like mark-defun (M-C-h), mark-word (M-@) or mark-whole-buffer (C-x h))
> do activate the region.

This is also clear.


> The way the command loop actually works with regard to deactivating the
> region is as follows:
>
> - If the variable `zmacs-region-stays' has been set to t during the command
>  just executed, the region is left alone (this is how the motion commands
>  make the region stay around; see the `_' flag in the `interactive'
>  specification).  `zmacs-region-stays' is reset to nil before each command
>  is executed.
> - If the function `zmacs-activate-region' has been called during the command
>  just executed, the region is left alone.  Very few functions should
>  actually call this function.
> - Otherwise, if the region is active, the region is deactivated and
>  the `zmacs-deactivate-region-hook' is called.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  > Here, it has manifestly lead to massive confusion.
>
> I suspect that is mostly just the unfortunate Emacs terminology,
> variable names, and documentation for the concept (sorry guys, but
> "unfortunate" is the nicest thing I can say about the stuff quoted in
> this thread), not because the word "active" itself is confusing.

I think something like the text above could make "(emacs) Mark" more
easy to read.


>  > "But EVERYBODY know what \"active\" means!" just won't do.
>
> I don't think XEmacs's definition has that problem.
>
>
>