two column mode ?

two column mode ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the two column mode triggered by C-x 6 2. What is the difference with C-x 5 2 ?

What it does is create a buffer on the right of the buffer I'm currently using, but not by splitting the window, so that I'm not seeing the original buffer. How can I "conveniently edit two side-by-side columns of text." ?

Am I missing something ? Is it because I'm using the tab new feature that this one is not working ?


Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: two column mode ?

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the two
> column mode triggered by C-x 6 2

Check out the file where its defined, two-column.el -
I have it in
/usr/share/emacs/26.1/lisp/textmodes/two-column.el.gz

Don't worry, you don't even have to read it.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: two column mode ?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org>
> Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2020 11:47:49 +0900
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the two column mode triggered by C-x 6 2. What is the difference with C-x 5 2 ?

Did you read the section in the Emacs manual that describes this mode?
I think it answers your question.

Re: two column mode ?

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the two
>> column mode triggered by C-x 6 2. What is the
>> difference with C-x 5 2 ?
>
> Did you read the section in the Emacs manual that
> describes this mode? I think it answers your question.

Does it also address all the drawbacks with this format?

While certainly a technical tour de force _and_ I'm 100%
supportive of the all-freedom notion to do whatever one
likes with one's editor and files, it still makes sense
to have text as plain as "text/plain; charset=us-ascii"
and then do formatting and/or post-processing with
whatever tools one prefers, be it HTML or LaTeX or groff
or for that matter no markup whatsoever, just an
external layer of computing to fit anyone's and
everyone's preferences for the intended purpose?

Data wants to be data!

Still, again bows and HATS OFF for this technical
wizardry from author Daniel Pfeiffer and other
contributors to two-column.el.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: two column mode ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

Sorry I just realized that I had unsubbed myself a while ago and did not find your replies but on the web earlier today.

So.

@Eli

No, reading the manual did not help, hence my question, but your reply that I should read the manual did suggest that I had missed something important and I went back to the manual and it looks like this mode is for editing a file that has 2 (or more ?) columns, or to add a column to an existing file.

I have never seen such a file in text format so the purpose was not obvious.

Also, I tried a number of things (C-x 6 2, type in the new window, C-x 6 1, merge) but not much happened so I'm a bit lost...

What are the use cases for this feature set ?

> On Apr 25, 2020, at 11:47, Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org> wrote:
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the two column mode triggered by C-x 6 2. What is the difference with C-x 5 2 ?
> 
> What it does is create a buffer on the right of the buffer I'm currently using, but not by splitting the window, so that I'm not seeing the original buffer. How can I "conveniently edit two side-by-side columns of text." ?
> 
> Am I missing something ? Is it because I'm using the tab new feature that this one is not working ?
> 
> 
> Jean-Christophe Helary
> -----------------------------------------------
> http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune

Re: two column mode ?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org>
> Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 18:49:13 +0900
> 
> No, reading the manual did not help, hence my question, but your reply that I should read the manual did suggest that I had missed something important and I went back to the manual and it looks like this mode is for editing a file that has 2 (or more ?) columns, or to add a column to an existing file.

Yes, that's my understanding as well.

> I have never seen such a file in text format so the purpose was not obvious.
> 
> Also, I tried a number of things (C-x 6 2, type in the new window, C-x 6 1, merge) but not much happened so I'm a bit lost...

You should add a column separator to see something happening, AFAIU.

> What are the use cases for this feature set ?

You pretty much summarized them above, and I don't know more about
this than what I can glean from the manual.  This is a very old mode,
from before Emacs 19; maybe ask on emacs-devel, where some veterans
might know its roots and use cases.

Re: two column mode ?

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> What are the use cases for this feature set ?
>
> You pretty much summarized them above, and I don't
> know more about this than what I can glean from the
> manual.

@Eli Zaretskii

I think @Jean-Christophe Helary meant applied or "real
world" use cases or whatever one is supposed to call
'em - again,

  [c]heck out the file where its defined,
  two-column.el - I have it in
  /usr/share/emacs/26.1/lisp/textmodes/two-column.el.gz

which is a good example. Not only is it an
applied/real-world use case, it solves the problem in
a way that is perhaps even preferable to other options
(e.g., LaTeX) because of its interactive edit and
responsiveness. Because its a task that invites
perfectionism and iterative edits, while at the same
time here even more than ever and elsewhere
perfectionism cannot be achieved - so that means A LOT
of edits, is what I'm trying to say!

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: two column mode ?

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:

> @Eli
>
> No, reading the manual did not help, hence my
> question, but your reply that I should read the
> manual did suggest that I had missed something
> important and I went back to the manual and it looks
> like this mode is for editing a file that has 2 (or
> more ?) columns, or to add a column to an
> existing file.
>
> I have never seen such a file in text format so the
> purpose was not obvious.
>
> [...]
>
> What are the use cases for this feature set ?

@Jean-Christophe Helary, again

  [c]heck out the file where its defined,
  two-column.el - I have it in
  /usr/share/emacs/26.1/lisp/textmodes/two-column.el.gz

there you have both a file to look at, and an example
use case.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: two column mode ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

Thank you Emanuel.

> On May 2, 2020, at 9:47, Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
> Jean-Christophe Helary wrote:
> 
>> @Eli
>> 
>> No, reading the manual did not help, hence my
>> question, but your reply that I should read the
>> manual did suggest that I had missed something
>> important and I went back to the manual and it looks
>> like this mode is for editing a file that has 2 (or
>> more ?) columns, or to add a column to an
>> existing file.
>> 
>> I have never seen such a file in text format so the
>> purpose was not obvious.
>> 
>> [...]
>> 
>> What are the use cases for this feature set ?
> 
> @Jean-Christophe Helary, again
> 
>  [c]heck out the file where its defined,
>  two-column.el - I have it in
>  /usr/share/emacs/26.1/lisp/textmodes/two-column.el.gz
> 
> there you have both a file to look at, and an example
> use case.

Ok, I see. The purpose was originally to create a structure for aligned bilingual texts originally. Fascinating.

As suggests Eli, I must have been missing the text separator to see anything valuable.

Thank you both for the help.


Jean-Christophe Helary
-----------------------------------------------
http://mac4translators.blogspot.com @brandelune