Re: "Staying in the same place"

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> I think it'd good to think of such solutions in the context of bookmarks
> as well.

Hm...  interesting...

I know next to nothing about Emacs bookmarking.  How are bookmarks
stored (for special mode buffers)?

> I don't think it can be done with the current bookmark data, tho.
> IIRC there were 2 main reasons:
> - You need to be able to distinguish the case "go back to bookmark in
>   a new buffer" and "go back to bookmark in the current buffer".
> - You probably want to distinguish between the case where you want to
>   revert/refresh, and the case where it's OK to just jump to some
>   spot in some existing buffer.

I'm trying to envision how this would work from a UX point of view.
Let's say you're trying to do some "-Wall" cleanups in emacs/src, and
you've gotten halfway down the list of things you're able to clean up,
so you set a bookmark there.  Then the next time you compile something
in that directory, then point moves to around that point?  

>> (The reason I'm thinking about this is that I was thinking about what
>> would be necessary to make `g' in compilation buffers remain in "the
>> same place".  Which is useful when you're trying to weed out compilation
>> warnings.)
>
> Oohh.. that's yet another step up in complexity since in that case you
> can't "go back" right away, you first have to wait for the process to
> send enough data.

Yes, it's an added wrinkle, but I think it should be possible to
handle.  I made a first stab at it in the recently reverted `r'/`l'
code, and it seemed to be kinda nice, even if the implementation wasn't
very general.

> But yes, that would be great (I'd particularly appreciate it in
> *vc-diff*).

Indeed, staying in the "same place" in *vc-diff* would be very nice.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no