Re: Transposing words over middle words

[Loris Bennett]

Hi Bob,

Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> writes:

> TL;DR: How can I transpose words jumping over middle words?
>
> Of course we all know about C-t transpose-chars.  And there is the
> corresponding M-t transpose-words too.  Here is the documentation.
>
>        ‘M-t’ transposes the word before point with the word after point
>     (‘transpose-words’).  It moves point forward over a word, dragging the
>     word preceding or containing point forward as well.  The punctuation
>     characters between the words do not move.  For example, ‘FOO, BAR’
>     transposes into ‘BAR, FOO’ rather than ‘BAR FOO,’.
>
> When modifying a list of comma separated s strings this works great.
> But often I find myself wanting to transpose words in an "and"
> structure.
>
>   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
>
> With the point on the space after Jack the easiest way I know to
> transpose those words is to M-d to kill-word forward deleting the
> "and" leaving.
>
>   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
>       ^ point is here: M-d
>   Jack Jill went up the hill.
>
> Then M-t to transpose those words:
>
>   Jack Jill went up the hill.
>       ^ point is here: M-t
>   Jill Jack went up the hill.
>
> Then restore the "and" which is somewhat inelegant
>
>   Jill Jack went up the hill.
>       ^ point is here: C-b C-y
>   Jill and Jack went up the hill.
>
> Obviously I can use other brute force make the change.
>
>   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
>            ^ point is here: M-d
>   Jack and  went up the hill.
>            ^ point is here: M-b M-b
>   Jack and  went up the hill.
>   ^ point is here: C-y M-d M-f
>   Jill and  went up the hill.
>           ^ point is here: C-f C-y
>   Jill and Jack went up the hill.
>
> That or something similar is usually what I do.  This is one of those
> nuisance items I have always wished had a better way to accomplish but
> just always worked through it by brute force.  But transpose-words has
> always been taunting me that it almost does what I want with M-t but
> doesn't work in this situation.
>
> Is there a way to use M-t to transpose words skipping over middle
> words like it does for punctuation?  Perhaps there isn't a better way.

Assuming I'm at the end of the three words where the transposition
should take place, I usually do

   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
                ^ point is here: M-b
   Jack and Jill went up the hill.
            ^ point is here: M-t
   Jack Jill and went up the hill.
                ^ point is here: M-b M-b
   Jack Jill and went up the hill.
        ^ point is here: M-t M-t
   Jill and Jack went up the hill.

It seems moderately elegant to me, because it involves a fairly simple
ordering of only two different functions.  Having said that, I don't do
it that regularly and so still often screw it up.

Cheers,

Loris

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