Re: visual-region-mode?

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hello, hw.

On Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 22:28:53 +0200, hw wrote:
> charles@aurox.ch (Charles A. Roelli) writes:

> >> From: hw <hw@adminart.net>
> >> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 22:04:14 +0200

> >> With t-m-m disabled, there is no way to fortify the region, and there is
> >> no highlighting.  Why would I disable it?

[ .... ]

> Disabling t-m-m doesn't make any sense at all.  Why would anyone disable
> it?

For the avoidance of the complexities that dealing with
transient-mark-mode involves.

> I can see it for someone who doesn't like the highlighting, so if it was
> configurable --- and it is amazing that is isn't --- whether to
> highlight the region when it's active or not, everyone who dislikes the
> highlighting could have t-m-m enabled.  I would remove having it
> disabled entirely from Emacs because there is no point in that and only
> complication.

There is a great deal of point.  Your last suggestion borders on the
offensive, since it suggests that any user whose needs and understanding
are different from yours should not be taken into account in plotting the
future of Emacs.

I do agree with you that transient-mark-mode is a hodge-podge of vaguely
related distinct features, mostly badly named, and that was why I argued
against it becoming a default setting some years ago.

I also agree with you that these distinct features should be capable of
being en/disabled independently.  These distinct features are (i) the
highlighting of the region; (ii) the disablement of commands which need
the mark to function; (iii) the "narrowing" of the buffer for certain
commands (such as M-%).

> Without highlighting, a different indicator could be useful to show
> whether the region is active or not, like a hint in the mode line.

Yes.  I suggest this should be a single character, or at most two
characters.  Space in the mode line is precious.  Maybe "+" could fulfil
this role somewhere.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).