From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kelly Dean Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Proposal to change cursor appearance to indicate region activation Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:54:38 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <1366426478.1624.YahooMailClassic@web141106.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1366426486 11356 80.91.229.3 (20 Apr 2013 02:54:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2013 02:54:46 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 20 04:54:50 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UTNwv-0002tq-Ox for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 20 Apr 2013 04:54:49 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:43061 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UTNwv-0006lg-FQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:54:49 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:44790) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UTNwp-0006lT-Gn for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:54:46 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UTNwm-00013p-9T for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:54:43 -0400 Original-Received: from nm16-vm1.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com ([98.139.213.131]:33077) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UTNwm-00011r-1H for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:54:40 -0400 Original-Received: from [98.139.212.149] by nm16.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Apr 2013 02:54:38 -0000 Original-Received: from [98.139.215.251] by tm6.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Apr 2013 02:54:38 -0000 Original-Received: from [127.0.0.1] by omp1064.mail.bf1.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 20 Apr 2013 02:54:38 -0000 X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-5 X-Yahoo-Newman-Id: 966991.37355.bm@omp1064.mail.bf1.yahoo.com Original-Received: (qmail 11705 invoked by uid 60001); 20 Apr 2013 02:54:38 -0000 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=yahoo.com; s=s1024; t=1366426478; bh=9qiLF8D4JY7rBx0MPxzNcirt/IQJqMJ9tGS4gS08KJw=; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Rocket-MIMEInfo:X-Mailer:Message-ID:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=0gPNxuz3zYyTYVdyg4tLSM6hAP7j7AqfsV0vdOZHAxcdQF9ir7Q8uL4osSVlkmpPWZjkJnUzex9Z9chQz4ruZnuU9qEMGokMS7N/w075NRKwICngNW8KQRbkjVugZaqvlzdNIMaYY1Wd8HrcHUpy4/i1yMUSq7GeoeNRsTzikUo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=yahoo.com; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Rocket-MIMEInfo:X-Mailer:Message-ID:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=2ABqsokXMmGzgKDKiJHFXZdJM9NPwJLoHrPXtX1ousJ4VZXHBrfFTqRVyMZ7Dn2F44nzNEHm3OuueHNOyB1I7Baa6KfDX9mfSCiwUlRN8Z2orUGLE9CT2rHtnYbdD20CYNyKaLMT6ZUN0x3x71Qnv+JcWSLhL6GWfgS0LkdlD+I=; X-YMail-OSG: IHYSBAQVM1lIjYfwChfNMmMCmSCpUlupCB4H6b3EB4I_uuB NilZGU1v9JT7Y6oOAoOmnz9lhxPWpi_5Sh0kBe4ohY.x9.OoIsPXkL7lpc08 NcdS8kYOjrgy50Fmfd3RN6S_8LunyYrSEbr6sFssomnwEKARvC0ycc2dSdO5 Avavc4NjSrB4AfOA0v4htY3FwMpFiV_QFzTfgh83t1vXMXGN8d7Z.WD8QRWd xCHHGyf3y6EkO9na9PLHPxDGM0IqTMj.Ke3Drl3fWQEQvE2aXFNOwiO1UBq5 RmlcOTR6Yws8a0phsO5i3T.M0W5ng_l_kNkPw0G9KWwLqC8v.C9SCzSpVB.c B2mSBF1phEbrnI8PMzZXSTg0R812Tt3l.6de1V_y5lKLB72SqkVhJPblgSRs nm4Ni7DvUtpMYkngjW_bO1p5KxRXLBzpNOuPiYm22oya3PyjTNBJH5VOc Original-Received: from [87.106.148.228] by web141106.mail.bf1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:54:38 PDT X-Rocket-MIMEInfo: 002.001, QnkgZGVmYXVsdCBpbiBFbWFjcywgd2hlbiB0aGUgcmVnaW9uIGlzIGFjdGl2ZSBidXQgZW1wdHksIHRoZXJlJ3Mgbm8gdmlzdWFsIGluZGljYXRpb24gb2YgdGhpcyBzdGF0dXMuIE5laXRoZXIgaXMgdGhlcmUgaW5kaWNhdGlvbiBvZiB0aGUgYWN0aXZlIHJlZ2lvbiBpZiBwb2ludCBpcyBvbmUgbGVzcyB0aGFuIG1hcmsgYW5kIGJsaW5rLWN1cnNvci1tb2RlIGlzIG9mZi4gQWxzbywgaWYgcG9pbnQgaXMgZ3JlYXRlciB0aGFuIG1hcmssIHRoZSBhY3RpdmUgcmVnaW9uIGlzIGhpZ2hsaWdodGVkLCBidXQgdGgBMAEBAQE- X-Mailer: YahooMailClassic/15.1.7 YahooMailWebService/0.8.141.536 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: FreeBSD 8.x X-Received-From: 98.139.213.131 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:159026 Archived-At: By default in Emacs, when the region is active but empty, there's no visual indication of this status. Neither is there indication of the active region if point is one less than mark and blink-cursor-mode is off. Also, if point is greater than mark, the active region is highlighted, but the block cursor does an inverse-video highlight of the character following the region, which (speaking from experience) an Emacs newbie finds distracting, since it seems to indicate that that character is also part of the region, even though it actually isn't. Adding to the confusion, the inverse-video highlighted character actually is part of the region in the case that point is less than mark. Setting the cursor type to bar when the region is active solves all those problems, and I recommend it as the de fault for Emacs. (add-hook 'deactivate-mark-hook (lambda () (setq cursor-type t))) (add-hook 'activate-mark-hook (lambda () (setq cursor-type 'bar))) Simply setting the cursor type permanently to bar would solve most of the problems, but still wouldn't indicate an active empty region. And a permanent bar cursor makes it hard to find the cursor on screen if blink mode is off. So I recommend keeping the current default of a block cursor when the region isn't active. Stephan said (in comment about bug 14225) that if a dynamic cursor is the default, then people will probably start experiencing bugs because of it. For me it's only triggered bugs 13027, 14225, and maybe 13169, which are all fixed, and when I restart Emacs I get a bar cursor in each buffer (reloaded using desktop mode) until I do keyboard-quit, but it doesn't bother me much since I don't restart Emacs very often.