query-replace on region highlights too much

query-replace on region highlights too much

[Kai Großjohann]

I mark a region, I invoke M-%.  This will perform the query-replace on
the marked region only.  (I forget whether that's always the case, or
whether I have turned on something to make it so.  I think it works
like this because I use transient-mark-mode.)

The problem is that the highlighting of the search string is performed
in the whole buffer, not only in the region where replacing is going
to happen.

Kai

Re: query-replace on region highlights too much

[Miles Bader]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:38:24 +0100, Kai Großjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> wrote:
> I mark a region, I invoke M-%.  This will perform the query-replace on
> the marked region only.  (I forget whether that's always the case, or
> whether I have turned on something to make it so.  I think it works
> like this because I use transient-mark-mode.)
> 
> The problem is that the highlighting of the search string is performed
> in the whole buffer, not only in the region where replacing is going
> to happen.

Yes, I find that very disturbing as well.  A particularly bad case is
where you're replacing a very common string (like a small space) in a
small region, in which case the bogus highlights can completely
overwhelm the cursor display and region highlighting!

Oh, also another problem with the "query-replace highlighting":  The
highlighting seems to be erased and re-done from scratch everytime you
hit "y" to replace an instance, which can be very annoying.  I suppose
the intent of this is to keep any highlighting up-to-date in the face
of buffer-modification, but it could be made much smarter (e.g., only
"refresh" the buffer region actually modified by the last
replacement).

Thanks,

-Miles
-- 
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Re: query-replace on region highlights too much

[Richard Stallman]

    The problem is that the highlighting of the search string is performed
    in the whole buffer, not only in the region where replacing is going
    to happen.

I wrote the code to handle this.  I will install it soon.