A `mark-line' function

A `mark-line' function

[David House]

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Hi,

I've written a mark-line function that behaves analogously to
mark-word, mark-paragraph etc. This has always seemed like a silly
omission to me.

Here are some examples (! indicates position of point, # indicates
position of mark):

Original text:
foo
bar
ba!z
quux

With M-x mark-line:
foo
bar
!baz#
quux

With C-u 2 M-x mark-line instead:
foo
bar
!baz
quux#

With C-u -1 M-x mark-line instead:
foo
#bar
!baz
quux

It is in fact exactly the source of mark-paragraph using forward-line
and previous-line instead of forward-paragraph and backward-paragraph
respectively.

I have attached two patches; one contains the definition of the
function and the other the binding (M-n), in case it is decided that a
binding isn't wished for, or a different binding would be better. The
patches are in "git diff" format. I realise this probably isn't the
right format for them to be in but I was unsure about what exactly is
needed. If it would be helpful to have the patches in an alternative
format please let me know.

I look forward to your feedback. Thanks,
-David

[-- Attachment #2: mark-line.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 1313 bytes --]

diff --git a/lisp/simple.el b/lisp/simple.el
index f609755..a6232d7 100644
--- a/lisp/simple.el
+++ b/lisp/simple.el
@@ -3970,6 +3970,36 @@ for it.")
     (goto-char position)
     (switch-to-buffer buffer)))
 \f
+(defun mark-line (&optional arg allow-extend)
+  "Put point at beginning of this line, mark at end.
+The line marked is the one that contains point or follows point.
+
+With argument ARG, puts mark at end of a following line, so that
+the number of lines marked equals ARG.
+
+If ARG is negative, point is put at end of this line, mark is put
+at beginning of this or a previous line.
+
+Interactively, if this command is repeated or (in Transient Mark
+mode) if the mark is active, it marks the next ARG lines after
+the ones already marked."
+  (interactive "p\np")
+  (unless arg (setq arg 1))
+  (when (zerop arg)
+    (error "Cannot mark zero lines"))
+  (cond ((and allow-extend
+	      (or (and (eq last-command this-command) (mark t))
+		  (and transient-mark-mode mark-active)))
+	 (set-mark
+	  (save-excursion
+	    (goto-char (mark))
+	    (forward-line arg)
+	    (point))))
+	(t
+	 (forward-line arg)
+	 (push-mark nil t t)
+	 (previous-line arg))))
+
 (defcustom next-line-add-newlines nil
   "If non-nil, `next-line' inserts newline to avoid `end of buffer' error."
   :type 'boolean

[-- Attachment #3: mark-line-binding.patch --]
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diff --git a/lisp/bindings.el b/lisp/bindings.el
index a7f6643..07dbc0d 100644
--- a/lisp/bindings.el
+++ b/lisp/bindings.el
@@ -822,6 +822,7 @@ or \\[semantic-mode]")))))
 (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-@" 'pop-global-mark)
 (define-key ctl-x-map [?\C- ] 'pop-global-mark)
 
+(define-key global-map "\M-n" 'mark-line)
 (define-key global-map "\C-n" 'next-line)
 (define-key global-map "\C-p" 'previous-line)
 (define-key ctl-x-map "\C-n" 'set-goal-column)