Re: line-move-visual

[Tassilo Horn]

Uday S Reddy <uDOTsDOTreddy@cs.bham.ac.uk> writes:

Hi Uday,

> In this particular instance, the customization needed is not a big
> deal: set line-move-visual to nil.  Almost everybody can do it.  But
> the time they had to spend in discovering that they needed to change
> it is what has been significant.

IMO, the first thing a new emacs user should learn is using the help
facilities.  So after seeing that `C-n' moved point not to the next
(logical) line as it always did should be a reflexive `C-h C-n':

,----[ C-h k C-n ]
| C-n runs the command next-line, which is an interactive compiled Lisp function
| in `simple.el'.
| 
| It is bound to C-n, <down>.
| 
| (next-line &optional ARG TRY-VSCROLL)
| 
| Move cursor vertically down ARG lines.
| [...]
| If the variable `line-move-visual' is non-nil, this command moves
| by display lines.  Otherwise, it moves by buffer lines, without
| taking variable-width characters or continued lines into account.
| [...]
| 
| If you are thinking of using this in a Lisp program, consider
| using `forward-line' instead.  It is usually easier to use
| and more reliable (no dependence on goal column, etc.).
`----

> (In fact, after this thread started, I began to wonder if VM might be
> vulnerable to the problem as well, and went and checked if there were
> calls to next-line anywhere.  There were three of them!)

As you can see in the docs above, `next-line' wasn't the right function
to call from lisp even before visual line movement.

> By the way, I think that the Emacs 23 visual-line-mode and word
> wrapping are a great addition to Emacs.  A civilized way of dealing
> with longlines has long been needed.  But the default setting of
> line-move-visual is an independent issue to that.

I agree with all of that.

Bye,
Tassilo