bug#16575: Unwanted interaction between Emacs & Oxford English Dictionary

bug#16575: Unwanted interaction between Emacs & Oxford English Dictionary

[Joe Fineman]

I use GNU Emacs 24.3 with Cygwin 1.5.25(0.156/4/2) under Windows XP
Professional Service Pack 3 Build 2600.  For many years I have been
using the CD-ROM Oxford English Dictionary, Version 3.1.  Since
December 2012 (at which time I was using Emacs 22.3), the two have
interacted in a bizarre way:  Whenever the OED and Emacs are both
running, if in Emacs I make a deletion, the computer switches to the
OED window and attempts to look up the character or string deleted.
(That of course is an intolerable distraction and means that I have to
kill the OED after each use of it.)  This behavior has survived the
upgrade from Emacs 22.3 to 24.3.  It does not occur with deletions in
other software such as Conkeror and Microsoft Word, so I *suppose* it
is a peculiarity of Emacs.

Feel free to speculate.  %^)
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||:  Wealth, like happiness, is best attained while pursuing  :||
||:  something else.                                          :||

bug#16575: Unwanted interaction between Emacs & Oxford English Dictionary

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Joe Fineman <joe_f@verizon.net> writes:

> I use GNU Emacs 24.3 with Cygwin 1.5.25(0.156/4/2) under Windows XP
> Professional Service Pack 3 Build 2600.  For many years I have been
> using the CD-ROM Oxford English Dictionary, Version 3.1.  Since
> December 2012 (at which time I was using Emacs 22.3), the two have
> interacted in a bizarre way:  Whenever the OED and Emacs are both
> running, if in Emacs I make a deletion, the computer switches to the
> OED window and attempts to look up the character or string deleted.

(I'm going through old Emacs bug reports that unfortunately got no
response at the time.)

Are you still seeing this strange behaviour in more modern versions of
Emacs?

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

Re: bug#16575: Unwanted interaction between Emacs & Oxford English Dictionary

[fuzzfiend02148]

On Monday, January 27, 2014 10:06:59 PM UTC-5, Joe Fineman wrote:
> I use GNU Emacs 24.3 with Cygwin 1.5.25(0.156/4/2) under Windows XP
> 
> Professional Service Pack 3 Build 2600.  For many years I have been
> 
> using the CD-ROM Oxford English Dictionary, Version 3.1.  Since
> 
> December 2012 (at which time I was using Emacs 22.3), the two have
> 
> interacted in a bizarre way:  Whenever the OED and Emacs are both
> 
> running, if in Emacs I make a deletion, the computer switches to the
> 
> OED window and attempts to look up the character or string deleted.
> 
> (That of course is an intolerable distraction and means that I have to
> 
> kill the OED after each use of it.)  This behavior has survived the
> 
> upgrade from Emacs 22.3 to 24.3.  It does not occur with deletions in
> 
> other software such as Conkeror and Microsoft Word, so I *suppose* it
> 
> is a peculiarity of Emacs.
> 
> 
> 
> Feel free to speculate.  %^)
> 
> -- 
> 
> ---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net
> 
> 
> 
> ||:  Wealth, like happiness, is best attained while pursuing  :||
> 
> ||:  something else.                                          :||

In case anybody cares, I have found the source of this misbehavior.  It is a bug in an OED feature I had been unaware of.  The way to make it go away is to click on Options & then unclick "Auto-search from clipboard".  Why this feature, with accompanying bug, chose to light on Emacs is not clear to me, but conceivably it has something to do with Emacs & therefore possibly belongs here after all.