Re: Selection region and delete

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 25.07.2012 um 16:23 schrieb Juha Nieminen:

>> Is C-h k <delete key> producing the same description?
> 
> C-d (translated from <delete>) runs the command delete-char, which is
> an interactive built-in function in `C source code'.

OK, you've chosen C-d instead of BS. It should not make a difference, because 
when Delete Selection mode and Transient Mark mode are enabled *any* character 
produced by pressing some key should substitute the selected region with this 
character (or nothing in case of BS or C-d). The text report also makes certain 
that you are using GNU Emacs 23.x.

In an earlier eMail you mentioned:

>> If I add the line "(setq delete-selection-mode t)" to my .emacs,
>> then describe-variable says "Its value is t", and if I use nil instead
>> of t it says it's nil. In none of these cases does the delete key
>> function properly.

So you are making your tests with all your customisations active. This is real 
dirty work. Why can't you do yourself a big favour and launch GNU Emacs with 
-Q? On most Linux systems (those that I know) you can launch more than one 
Emacs. In X(11). In some terminal emulation it might be necessary to put the 
recent Emacs in the background – or just launch a second terminal with 'emacs 
-Q' in it! In that original and uncustomised version you then can use the 
*scratch* buffer to execute Elisp commands. For example one or two from your 
init files.

The first command is – well, actually you just could mark some text in 
*scratch* buffer! Start with doing so with the mouse. Now press some key! What 
happened to the selected region? Ohh-kay! You can undo, and then select again 
with the mouse. Now press BS (backspace) or C-d. What happened to the selected 
region?

Second test: mark a region with the keyboard (C-SPACE presumingly) and the 
press some key! What happened to the selected region? OK, again, you can undo 
and mark again a region with the keyboard. Now press BS or C-d. What happened 
to the selected region?

Aha, I see…

So just insert

        (delete-selection-mode t)

into the *scratch* buffer. Position the text cursor (point) into the word 
"delete-selection-mode". You can then type C-h v RET and also C-h f RET. The 
last step is to go to the end of the line, right of the closing parenthesis. 
And then press C-j – and nothing else!

(If you want you can check with C-h v the value of the variable 
delete-selection-mode.) Now perform the two test sets from above again (marking 
with mouse and marking with keyboard and then typing some character or BS or 
C-d with optional undoing in-between)! What happened? Did you write a log of 
what you performed and what happened when delete-selection-mode was the default 
(nil) and when it was enabled? Are the results different?

When they are not different, you have a very good reason to open a bug report 
at Suse. Or compile GNU Emacs 23.4 from source yourself – without need to 
install it anywhere – and perform the tests again. When they are still not 
different you have even more reason for a bug report at Suse/Novell. (Because 
it cannot be that GNU Emacs, *the* software, can behave so deviously.)

--
Greetings

  Pete

Theory and practice are the same, in theory, but, in practice, they are 
different.