Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Lennart Borgman]

I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep 
the highlite. Is this something other would find helpful too?

It is of course a new feature, but it can possible not break anything 
(except isearch highliting but that is easy to check). It we want this I 
would suggest to put it on C-RET or S-RET in isearch-mode-map. The main 
question is perhaps if we want it.

RE: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Drew Adams]

    I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep
    the highlite.... put it on C-RET or S-RET in isearch-mode-map.

Could be useful. The main question is how to later get rid of it. Perhaps
the next isearch could do that, or let isearch toggle it (see below).

Turning it on by a particular exit key sequence is not the best way. I would
rather have that be a user option (like case-fold-search), and be able to
toggle the option while in isearch (like we can toggle case-fold-search).

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Lennart Borgman]

Drew Adams wrote:

>    I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep
>    the highlite.... put it on C-RET or S-RET in isearch-mode-map.
>
>Could be useful. The main question is how to later get rid of it. Perhaps
>the next isearch could do that, or let isearch toggle it (see below).
>  
>
Yes the next search will clear it.

>Turning it on by a particular exit key sequence is not the best way. I would
>rather have that be a user option (like case-fold-search), and be able to
>toggle the option while in isearch (like we can toggle case-fold-search).
>  
>
Too cumbersome to me. Sometimes I want to leave the highlite there, 
sometimes not.

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Juri Linkov]

> I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep 
> the highlite. Is this something other would find helpful too?

There is already such an option: `lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
When nil, highlighting is not removed after the search.
You can use `M-x lazy-highlight-cleanup' to manually remove it.

> It is of course a new feature, but it can possible not break anything 
> (except isearch highliting but that is easy to check). It we want this I 
> would suggest to put it on C-RET or S-RET in isearch-mode-map.

BTW, I use C-RET to exit the search without pushing the search string
into the search ring.  Very useful to not stuff the search history
with unnecessary search strings.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Lennart Borgman]

Juri Linkov wrote:

>>I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep 
>>the highlite. Is this something other would find helpful too?
>>    
>>
>
>There is already such an option: `lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
>When nil, highlighting is not removed after the search.
>You can use `M-x lazy-highlight-cleanup' to manually remove it.
>  
>
Thanks, but that was not what I suggested. I suggested a key binding to 
leave the highlight after search. But maybe you just wanted to tell that 
it is possible to do this?

>BTW, I use C-RET to exit the search without pushing the search string
>into the search ring.  Very useful to not stuff the search history
>with unnecessary search strings.
>  
>
Yes, it seems useful to. It is kind of the same idea. I suppose you 
would not like this to be an option.

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Juri Linkov]

> Thanks, but that was not what I suggested. I suggested a key binding
> to leave the highlight after search. But maybe you just wanted to
> tell that it is possible to do this?
>
>>BTW, I use C-RET to exit the search without pushing the search string
>>into the search ring.  Very useful to not stuff the search history
>>with unnecessary search strings.
>>  
> Yes, it seems useful to. It is kind of the same idea.  I suppose you
> would not like this to be an option.

Yes, a permanent option is not suitable, because whether to use it
depends on the concrete situation.  Leaving the highlighting after the
search you suggested is the same thing.

I want to mention also that I use C-RET to leave point at the beginning
of the found string instead of the end.  There are possible other useful
things to do.

So the question is what is a good user interface for performing
different actions on exit?  Maybe to use a prefix argument, e.g.:

`M-1 RET' - don't remove highlighting
`M-2 RET' - don't push the search string into the search ring
`M-3 RET' - leave point at the beginning of the found string

And how to combine them?  Maybe as digits of the decimal number:

`M-123 RET'

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/

RE: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Drew Adams]

    >Turning it on by a particular exit key sequence is not the
    >best way. I would
    >rather have that be a user option (like case-fold-search), and
    >be able to
    >toggle the option while in isearch (like we can toggle
    >case-fold-search).

    Too cumbersome to me. Sometimes I want to leave the highlite there,
    sometimes not.

I was speaking here about turning highlighting on, not removing existing
highlighting. You seem to be talking about the latter here.

>From Juri's message, there is an option already, and a command to remove the
highlighting. Letting the next search remove the previous highlighting seems
better, to me than using a separate command.

Wrt toggling the highlight persistence, it would be handy to have an
isearch-mode-map binding that toggles option `lazy-highlight-cleanup'.

Having different search-exit key sequences to either leave the highlighting
or remove it, as you suggest, sounds a bit more cumbersome to me. It would
be easier to just toggle the persistence on or off while searching.

You aren't going to want to think about the persistence each time you exit
isearch - just turn it on when you want and off when you want. I see this
much like case-fold-search, except that the effect of the toggle only takes
place after you exit isearch.

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Lennart Borgman]

Drew Adams wrote:

>    >Turning it on by a particular exit key sequence is not the
>    >best way. I would
>    >rather have that be a user option (like case-fold-search), and
>    >be able to
>    >toggle the option while in isearch (like we can toggle
>    >case-fold-search).
>
>    Too cumbersome to me. Sometimes I want to leave the highlite there,
>    sometimes not.
>
>I was speaking here about turning highlighting on, not removing existing
>highlighting. You seem to be talking about the latter here.
>
>>From Juri's message, there is an option already, and a command to remove the
>highlighting. Letting the next search remove the previous highlighting seems
>better, to me than using a separate command.
>
>Wrt toggling the highlight persistence, it would be handy to have an
>isearch-mode-map binding that toggles option `lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
>
>Having different search-exit key sequences to either leave the highlighting
>or remove it, as you suggest, sounds a bit more cumbersome to me. It would
>be easier to just toggle the persistence on or off while searching.
>
>You aren't going to want to think about the persistence each time you exit
>isearch - just turn it on when you want and off when you want. I see this
>much like case-fold-search, except that the effect of the toggle only takes
>place after you exit isearch.
>
Since the option isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup exists I extend my 
suggestion a bit to let C-RET (or S-RET) mean "toggle 
isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup for me temporary when I exit search".

That way there is less to keep in your head when you exit isearch. You 
do not have to remember if you already have toggled the option because 
it is always in its usual state. You would have to do that if you 
toggled the option during the search and that would distract your brain 
I guess which is working with how to search at that moment.

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Richard M. Stallman]

    It is of course a new feature, but it can possible not break anything 
    (except isearch highliting but that is easy to check). It we want this I 
    would suggest to put it on C-RET or S-RET in isearch-mode-map. The main 
    question is perhaps if we want it.

Let's please focus on preparing for the release, rather than on
new feature ideas.

Re: Leaving isearch-mode and keeping the highlite

[Emilio Lopes]

Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman.073 <at> student.lu.se> writes:

> I would find it very helpful to be able to leave isearch-mode but keep 
> the highlite. Is this something other would find helpful too?

Have you tried "M-x highlight-regexp"?  You could even write a wrapper to
fetch the last search string automatically.

Perhaps you want something like

   http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/InteractiveSearch#CallOccurFromIsearch

I think these are far cleaner UIs than leaving isearch matches highlighted.