bug#39902: 28.0.50; Marking in dired with active region

[Drew Adams]

>>>> I see no reason for such an option.  And no reason
>>>> for the broken default behavior that the original
>>>> complaint was about.
>>>
>>> In 2012 you asked me to implement this feature,
>>> and after implementing it you confirmed that it has
>>> the right implementation.  Changing its long-standing
>>> default behavior now will cause backward-incompatibility
>>> in users' habits.
>>
>> Really?  What feature is that?  Could you please
>> point me to my request for it?
> 
> bug#10624

Sorry, I see nowhere at all in that (long) bug thread
where I asked you to implement such an option or the
broken behavior cited, or where confirmed that such
behavior is correct.

And if you find somewhere where I did say such things
then I'd say now that I was wrong then.  (My reading
of that thread doesn't find anything I disagree with
now or that contradicts what I've said here - but
that's not important.)

To me, that (open) enhancement request is anyway about
more important things than what you implemented or what
we're discussing now.

> > Could you also please describe the user habit in
> > question, and the change that would break it?
> 
> The most obvious way for users to mark e.g. next 2 files
> is to type S-down 2 times, then type 'm', especially
> convenient when arrow keys are located near the 'm' key.

I think that's what we're talking about.

I don't have a problem with users doing that.  What's the
problem with that?  What habit would be broken?

What we're talking about, I thought, is that, IF you use
`m' (or other mark-changing keys) AFTER you do that (or
after something else that selects parts of contiguous
file lines as the active region), THEN that marking
command acts on each file that has ANY part of its line
selected.  That's what the behavior should be, IMO.

You pointed out the corner case of a region that ends
at bol.  A fix for that corner case was provided.

> For example, here is the screenshot where you agreed
> that only 2 files should be marked:
>
> But this is not much different from this screenshot
> because 'file3' still is not inside the region:

That second image, where point is not at bol, _should_
result in the 3rd file being marked, IMO - and it does.
I don't see a problem with the bolp fix provided.

For me, it's about whether ANY (non-empty, hence the
bolp fix) part of a file's line is selected.  It's not
about whether the _file name_ is selected.  Actions in
Dired are generally (maybe even only) apply to a file
line, not to its file-name portion.

(An action, such as renaming, might affect only the
file-name portion as its _result_.  But it takes
effect on the file designated by that line.  And other
actions (e.g. chmod, touch) can affect other parts of
the line (e.g. permissions, date).

We've been around and around about the question now.
I think those who have spoken up in this thread,
including OP Michael - with you as the exception, feel
the same way: Act on each file when any non-empty part
of its line is in the active region.