bug#50929: Add slurp-sexp and barf-sexp

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:

>>> I'd like to suggest adding the command slurp-sexp and barf-sexp to
>>> lisp.el (perhaps after changing the names). These commands were
>>> popularized by structural editing packages like Paredit, and allow the
>>> user to quickly pull or push s-expressions into the current list.
>>
>> There's already paredit-forward-slurp-sexp (etc) -- do we need them in
>> lisp.el, too?
>
> Need is a difficult concept: Paredit also has a raise-sexp analogue, so
> lisp.el doesn't need that either (hence why I added slurp-sexp and
> barf-sexp right under raise-sexp), beyond the fact that it has already
> been added to the file.

I rather think that raise-sexp is an indication that these commands do
not belong in Emacs core -- it seems like raise-sexp was added in 2004,
but nobody seems to have clamoured for getting a key binding for it,
which would be unusual if it was a popular command.  (And nobody has
documented it either, apparently.)

My feeling is that these commands are vital for people who do structural
editing a lot -- but those people use paredit or similar.  People who
don't really don't think in those terms, so they don't miss the commands.

So my conclusion is that we don't want to add these commands, so I'm
closing this bug report (but if everybody else feels strongly that Emacs
should grow a more substantial support for structural Lisp editing, I
won't protest, but it should be just that -- more substantial, with a
fuller set of commands (with better names) and an Emacs manual section
explaining how it all ties together).

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no