Re: Replacing huge hidden selection when pasting text

[Alexandre Oberlin]

Hi again,

On Sun, 03 Jan 2016 03:25:04 +0100, Michael Heerdegen  
<michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:
> With `transient-mark-mode' off, you can mark a region (i.e., turn on
> transient mark mode temporarily) by hitting C-SPC twice.  Only then does
> delete-selection-mode replace the region.
AFAIK, the region is empty just after you have hit CTRL+SPACE twice, so  
there is no risk of overwriting anything.

> In any other case (when the
> region is not visible, i.e. not active) transient-mark-mode is just off,
> and delete-selection-mode should not delete the region, never.
But it does, often.

> So I think the behavior he sometimes gets could indeed be a bug.  Would
> be good to have a bug report, and it would be good if Alexandre would
> try to find a recipe so that we can find out what's going on (this could
> also be caused by some add on package) and fix the issue when necessary.
On some occasions the behavior changed after coming back from suspend...


I usually navigate in Emacs using the arrow keys and isearch rather than  
kidding around with the mouse and wheel. I can't stand transient mode  
because with it I must spend a significant portion of my typing trying to  
get rid of annoying highlighting. I must press CTRL+SPACE twice in a row  
to avoid highlighting and selecting stuff when moving or isearching.  
Moreover, as I already stressed, pressing CTRL+SPACE twice is also  
necessary to be SURE not to overwrite a non highlighted region in some  
still undefined but frequent circumstances, so I’d better not forget about  
it. THIS IS A TERRIBLE ERRATIC BUG IN EMACS.

Allowing the user to make selections and define active region without  
pressing SHIFT is extremely valuable as an accessibility feature for a  
person having definitely or temporarily lost the use of one hand. It is in  
the same vein as allowing selection of multiple check boxes without  
pressing SHIFT and is great for persons with such handicaps. However those  
should be accessibility features, and I don't think that making arrows  
keys select text by default in Emacs is an extremely brilliant idea.

To conclude, I would like to emphasize:
A) that it happens on quite different versions/systems, e.g. Cygwin and  
Ubuntu Live.
B) that I can’t afford spending hours or days on this.


Cheers,