[Top][All Lists]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design
From: |
Alan Mackenzie |
Subject: |
Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design |
Date: |
Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:35:06 +0000 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) |
Hi, Richard.
On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 04:48:40PM -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
> Whether something is a mode is a question about how people understand
> its interface.
> Isearch is not supposed to be a mode. It is supposed to be a command
> which searches for the printing character string you type, and you can
> edit the search string in simple limited ways. Unrelated editing
> commands end searcch and do their normal editing.
> The only control characters that originally didn't exit the Isearch
> were C-r and C-s -- which are the commands to enter Isearch.
Yes. But such a "feature pure" Isearch wouldn't serve users' needs very
well, particularly in such a rich environment as Emacs.
> Then I added M-y, which was ok because M-y would always be an error if
> it exited an Isearch (since the previous command was not a yank).
Ah. _NOW_ I understand why `isearch-yank-kill' is on M-y. :-) (At
least, was on M-y.)
> But then people started making other commands special, destroying the
> clear simplicity. As a result of those, Isearch is now more complex
> and people start to think of it as a mode. Thus, they propose changes
> that make it more like a mode, and make it even more complex, and even
> less of a command that searches for the printing character string you
> type.
I use Isearching almost constantly, and expect most users do too. I'd
be unhappy and less productive if its many features (I think I use most
of them) were not there. In fact, I'd write them if they weren't. ;-)
> >From this point of view, the whole point of Alan's changes (and of
> Drew's suggestion as well) is to *reduce* the modality of isearch.
> With Alan's option *on*, scrolling commands now work as they do
> elsewhere in Emacs: the visible portion of the buffer at hand
> changes, without disturbing the state of the buffer or the search.
> I never noticed Alan's proposal, but now that I see what it is, I am
> against it.
With all due respect, what you said back in 2003 (on the 1st March) was:
"I have no objections to it if it is disabled by default.". Then, I
thought it should have been enabled by default. Now I see that it
shouldn't be.
> It is very common to use C-v to exit an Isearch. This change would be
> a painful surprise.
It would. That is why it needs an option setting for this to happen. I
think that, likewise, `isearch-allow-prefix' should be nil by default.
> The idea that being in a search is a state that commands "shouldn't
> disturb" is the result of thinking of it as a mode. It is normal
> for editing commands to stop searching and edit instead.
Is scrolling "editing" here? I would have said no, since it doesn't
change the buffer and doesn't move point.
> --
> Dr Richard Stallman
--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, (continued)
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Stefan Monnier, 2011/09/20
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Dani Moncayo, 2011/09/21
- RE: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Drew Adams, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Stephen J. Turnbull, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/21
- RE: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Drew Adams, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/22
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Stephen J. Turnbull, 2011/09/22
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/22
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design,
Alan Mackenzie <=
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/22
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, PJ Weisberg, 2011/09/22
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/23
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Alan Mackenzie, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Dani Moncayo, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, chad, 2011/09/21
- RE: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Drew Adams, 2011/09/21
- Re: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/21
- RE: `isearch-allow-scroll' - a misnomer and a bad design, Drew Adams, 2011/09/12