rectangle mode selection

rectangle mode selection

[Andrea Crotti]

Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".

I mean in other editors you can really select a rectangle and then work with it, with emacs you have to compute it yourself.

It would be great if at least when I select some text, the area that represents the rectangle has a slightly different color
than the rest of the selected text.

Would that be somehow possible?

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Le Wang]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 740 bytes --]

Yeah, cua-selection-mode.  C-enter to start rectangle selection.  It works
very well, but I eventually moved off these training wheels and just used
Emacs' built-in rectangle features.

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Andrea Crotti
<andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com>wrote:

> Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool
> rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".
>
> I mean in other editors you can really select a rectangle and then work
> with it, with emacs you have to compute it yourself.
>
> It would be great if at least when I select some text, the area that
> represents the rectangle has a slightly different color
> than the rest of the selected text.
>
> Would that be somehow possible?
>
>
>


-- 
Le

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1051 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Andrea Crotti]

Il giorno 22/feb/2011, alle ore 18.09, Le Wang ha scritto:

> Yeah, cua-selection-mode.  C-enter to start rectangle selection.  It works very well, but I eventually moved off these training wheels and just used Emacs' built-in rectangle features.
> 


Ah thanks that quite nice!
Well but I didn't mean exactly that, I just wanted to show a bit differently the rectangle in the normal
rectangle selection.

In this way I would not need to use a different command but I could see immediately what my rectangle looks like...

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Le Wang]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 519 bytes --]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 8:04 AM, Andrea Crotti <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com>wrote:

> Ah thanks that quite nice!
> Well but I didn't mean exactly that, I just wanted to show a bit
> differently the rectangle in the normal
> rectangle selection.
>
> In this way I would not need to use a different command but I could see
> immediately what my rectangle looks like...


I don't know of anything like that. Once you run a couple of rectangle
commands, your mind gets very good at visualizing the working rectangle.

-- 
Le

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 807 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Kevin Rodgers]

On 2/22/11 9:50 AM, Andrea Crotti wrote:
> Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".
>
> I mean in other editors you can really select a rectangle and then work with it, with emacs you have to compute it yourself.
>
> It would be great if at least when I select some text, the area that represents the rectangle has a slightly different color
> than the rest of the selected text.
>
> Would that be somehow possible?

M-x report-emacs-bug RET
feature request: M-x transient-rectangle-mode RET
...
C-c C-c

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Michael Heerdegen]

There is http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/rect-mark.el in the Emacs
Wiki.  I was using it for some years - dunno if it still works ok.

Michael.

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Bastien]

Hi Andrea,

Andrea Crotti <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com> writes:

> Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool
> rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".

I wrote this some time ago:

  http://lumiere.ens.fr/~guerry/u/register-list.el

it provides facilities to edit registers in general and rectangles 
in particular.  You might find it useful, and I'd welcome feedback.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: rectangle mode selection

[rusi]

On Feb 22, 9:50 pm, Andrea Crotti <andrea.crott...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".
>
> I mean in other editors you can really select a rectangle and then work with it, with emacs you have to compute it yourself.
>
> It would be great if at least when I select some text, the area that represents the rectangle has a slightly different color
> than the rest of the selected text.
>
> Would that be somehow possible?
Seen this?

http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Le Wang]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 513 bytes --]

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 12:07 PM, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:

> Seen this?
>
> http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225
>

I now understand what Andrea wanted in his initial request  --
transient-rectangle-mode.  In this mode, you would see the normal region
selected by transient-mark-mode *and* the rectangle region in a different
face.  So that the built-in Emacs rectangle functions just work.

It seems a very reasonable.

Andrea, have you filed a feature request like Kevin suggested?

-- 
Le

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 927 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Andrea Crotti]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 926 bytes --]


Il giorno 26/feb/2011, alle ore 06.16, Le Wang ha scritto:

> On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 12:07 PM, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I now understand what Andrea wanted in his initial request  -- transient-rectangle-mode.  In this mode, you would see the normal region selected by transient-mark-mode *and* the rectangle region in a different face.  So that the built-in Emacs rectangle functions just work.
> 
> It seems a very reasonable.
> 
> Andrea, have you filed a feature request like Kevin suggested?
> 

Yes now I did :)
I think it could be a nice feature (of course customizable and off by default), because you don't need extra keys
and you can see immediately on what rectangle you're working on.

One other problem about the selection in general is that it doesn't create spaces and newlines automatically (like artist-mode for example).
Why is it done like that by the way?
Thanks,
Andrea

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1393 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Harry Putnam]

rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> On Feb 22, 9:50 pm, Andrea Crotti <andrea.crott...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Talking with a friend we got to this conclusion, emacs has very cool
>> rectangle commands, but they're hard to "see".
>>
>> I mean in other editors you can really select a rectangle and then
>> work with it, with emacs you have to compute it yourself.
>>
>> It would be great if at least when I select some text, the area that
>> represents the rectangle has a slightly different color
>> than the rest of the selected text.
>>
>> Would that be somehow possible?
> Seen this?
>
> http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225

This is kind of an old thread now, but I just got around to watching
and trying to do like in the video there.

I don't see anything like that behavior so assuming I haven't set
something.

Posters/bloggers there seem to be pretty ecstatic about it so I must be doing
something wrong.

In the video there is no mention of any special mode other than
cua-mode. 

I hear no sound so assuming there is none..

When I emulate the video by creating an html file and enter cua-mode, 
I don't see anything even vaguely like what occurs in the video.  No
rectangle is selected, no block entries or motions seem possible,
etc. 

Then near the end, the whole thing about `start values [...] ' is not
engaged with any visible command or the like but I see nothing like
that here.

  Using emacs version below here:
  emacs-24 (bzr of 2 days ago). 

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Le Wang]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 930 bytes --]

On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 4:11 AM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:

> rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225
>
> This is kind of an old thread now, but I just got around to watching
> and trying to do like in the video there.
>
> I don't see anything like that behavior so assuming I haven't set
> something.
>
> Posters/bloggers there seem to be pretty ecstatic about it so I must be
> doing
> something wrong.
>
> In the video there is no mention of any special mode other than
> cua-mode.
>
> I hear no sound so assuming there is none..
>

I hear sound.

When I emulate the video by creating an html file and enter cua-mode,
> I don't see anything even vaguely like what occurs in the video.  No
> rectangle is selected, no block entries or motions seem possible,
> etc.
>

The audio describes what's going on.  He pressed C-enter to start selecting
a rectangle.

-- 
Le

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1619 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[rusi]

On Mar 6, 6:40 am, Le Wang <l26w...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 4:11 AM, Harry Putnam <rea...@newsguy.com> wrote:
> > rusi <rustompm...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > >http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225
>
> > This is kind of an old thread now, but I just got around to watching
> > and trying to do like in the video there.
>
> > I don't see anything like that behavior so assuming I haven't set
> > something.
>
> > Posters/bloggers there seem to be pretty ecstatic about it so I must be
> > doing
> > something wrong.
>
> > In the video there is no mention of any special mode other than
> > cua-mode.
>
> > I hear no sound so assuming there is none..
>
> I hear sound.
>
> When I emulate the video by creating an html file and enter cua-mode,
>
> > I don't see anything even vaguely like what occurs in the video.  No
> > rectangle is selected, no block entries or motions seem possible,
> > etc.
>
> The audio describes what's going on.  He pressed C-enter to start selecting
> a rectangle.
>
> --
> Le

(info "(emacs)Cua bindings")
has a brief mention of rectangle commands.

So you
1. ensure that cua-mode is on
2. get into 'tr
Unfortunately trying to track some of them

Re: rectangle mode selection

[rusi]

Sorry earlier posted posted incomplete

On Mar 6, 1:52 pm, rusi <rustompm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 6, 6:40 am, Le Wang <l26w...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 4:11 AM, Harry Putnam <rea...@newsguy.com> wrote:
> > > rusi <rustompm...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > > >http://vimeo.com/1168225?pg=embed&sec=1168225
>
> > > This is kind of an old thread now, but I just got around to watching
> > > and trying to do like in the video there.
>
> > > I don't see anything like that behavior so assuming I haven't set
> > > something.
>
> > > Posters/bloggers there seem to be pretty ecstatic about it so I must be
> > > doing
> > > something wrong.
>
> > > In the video there is no mention of any special mode other than
> > > cua-mode.
>
> > > I hear no sound so assuming there is none..
>
> > I hear sound.
>
> > When I emulate the video by creating an html file and enter cua-mode,
>
> > > I don't see anything even vaguely like what occurs in the video.  No
> > > rectangle is selected, no block entries or motions seem possible,
> > > etc.
>
> > The audio describes what's going on.  He pressed C-enter to start selecting
> > a rectangle.
>
> > --
> > Le
>
(info "(emacs)Cua bindings")
has a brief mention of rectangle commands.

So you
1. ensure that cua-mode is on
2. get into 'enhanced rectangle' submode of cua with C-RET

Unfortunately trying to track some of the available functionality
there shows some of those functions as undocumented (eg M-p)

So there are 2 doc bugs here:
1. The info page does not spell out the functionality
2. The functions doing that functionality are not properly documented

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Le Wang]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 803 bytes --]

On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 4:58 PM, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:


> (info "(emacs)Cua bindings")
> has a brief mention of rectangle commands.
>
> So you
> 1. ensure that cua-mode is on
> 2. get into 'enhanced rectangle' submode of cua with C-RET
>
> Unfortunately trying to track some of the available functionality
> there shows some of those functions as undocumented (eg M-p)
>
> So there are 2 doc bugs here:
> 1. The info page does not spell out the functionality
> 2. The functions doing that functionality are not properly documented
>

I don't know about the documentation situation, but when you press C-enter
to start rectangle selection, the a message occurs in the minibuffer
explaining what your options are (including M-p).  You can bring back this
messsage by pressing C-?.



-- 
Le

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1185 bytes --]

Re: rectangle mode selection

[rusi]

On Mar 7, 10:06 am, Le Wang <l26w...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 4:58 PM, rusi <rustompm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > (info "(emacs)Cua bindings")
> > has a brief mention of rectangle commands.
>
> > So you
> > 1. ensure that cua-mode is on
> > 2. get into 'enhanced rectangle' submode of cua with C-RET
>
> > Unfortunately trying to track some of the available functionality
> > there shows some of those functions as undocumented (eg M-p)
>
> > So there are 2 doc bugs here:
> > 1. The info page does not spell out the functionality
> > 2. The functions doing that functionality are not properly documented
>
> I don't know about the documentation situation, but when you press C-enter
> to start rectangle selection, the a message occurs in the minibuffer
> explaining what your options are (including M-p).  You can bring back this
> messsage by pressing C-?.

Yes of course (thats where I found it :-)
And then how to find out more about it?

Re: rectangle mode selection

[Harry Putnam]

Le Wang <l26wang@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

Harry wrote:
>> I don't see anything like that behavior so assuming I haven't set
>> something.
>>
>> Posters/bloggers there seem to be pretty ecstatic about it so I must be
>> doing
>> something wrong.
>>
>> In the video there is no mention of any special mode other than
>> cua-mode.
>>
>> I hear no sound so assuming there is none..
>>

Le answered:
> I hear sound.

Harry wrote:
> When I emulate the video by creating an html file and enter cua-mode,
>> I don't see anything even vaguely like what occurs in the video.  No
>> rectangle is selected, no block entries or motions seem possible,
>> etc.
>>

Le Replied:
> The audio describes what's going on.  He pressed C-enter to start selecting
> a rectangle.

Thanks... yes I see/hear it all now.... I was viewing it on a session
of firefox pulled across the network with `Xming', and homed at a
machine where I never have sound activated....  I often run emacs-gnus
that way on a windows machine and when I click a link it runs firefox
from the remote linux (no sound) machine and running in the Xming session.

I just lost track of which firefox instance I was viewing from.