Re: Speed of keyboard macro execution?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2015 21:36:14 +0100
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> >>>>>> Perry E Metzger <perry@piermont.com> writes:
> >
> >> On Thu, 10 Dec 2015 22:00:05 +0200 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> >>> > From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
> >>> > So I think it would make excellent sense to disable visual
> >>> > positioning modes while recording and replaying keyboard macros.
> >>> 
> >>> No, I think you are wrong.  Think C-n and C-p again.
> >
> > Recording a macro has the value that it does what the user would have
> > done, just automated. If you disable visual positioning, then in many
> > cases it no longer does what I would have done manually.
> 
> Visual positioning makes no sense without visual feedback.  Can you show
> a single example of a task to be done by a keyboard macro where visual
> positioning would _help_ achieve that task rather than sabotage it?

Even if I agree with you, it doesn't help to fix the _interactive_ use
case of pressing C-p.  With very long lines, that can take an
eternity.  _That_ is what we should strive to fix.


> 
> Just one?  For your argument's sake?  I certainly get the ugliness of
> changing a setting during macro record/replay.  No question about that.
> But the alternative is keyboard macros being essentially useless because
> their effects on the text become unpredictable.
> 
> Yes, they are then perfectly equivalent to pressing the same keys
> outside of macro recording/replay, but since the pressing of the keys is
> done based on visual feedback, there is just no point in recording key
> presses during visual movement mode and replay them at some other buffer
> position, or even the same buffer position but with different visuals.
> 
> In this case, I prefer "wrong" to "useless".
> 
> -- 
> David Kastrup
> 
>