Interactively edit a list of strings

Interactively edit a list of strings

[Joe Riel]

Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
Any suggestions on how to implement this?  

My first thought is to write each string on a separate line in a
temporary buffer, allow the user to edit that, then reassemble the
buffer into a list, however, that isn't ideal, it allows too much
freedom to modify the content.  I could restrict the allowable
commands to deleting lines, but am wondering if there is a better way.

-- 
Joe Riel

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Ben Bacarisse]

Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:

> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
> Any suggestions on how to implement this?  
>
> My first thought is to write each string on a separate line in a
> temporary buffer, allow the user to edit that, then reassemble the
> buffer into a list, however, that isn't ideal, it allows too much
> freedom to modify the content.  I could restrict the allowable
> commands to deleting lines, but am wondering if there is a better way.

You might consider using widgets:

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.html

You could write the strings as an "editable-list" widget without the
[INS] buttons so only a [DEL] button available.

-- 
Ben.

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:

> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
> Any suggestions on how to implement this?  

You could try using `tabulated-list-mode', display your list of strings.
Then you could write a short command to remove a string from the list
and redisplay, and bind that in the local keymap. It's tiny bit
overkill, but would make it possible to do a bunch of other stuff with
the strings.

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2018-07-23, at 04:39, Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote:

> Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:
>
>> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
>> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
>> Any suggestions on how to implement this?
>
> You could try using `tabulated-list-mode', display your list of strings.
> Then you could write a short command to remove a string from the list
> and redisplay, and bind that in the local keymap. It's tiny bit
> overkill, but would make it possible to do a bunch of other stuff with
> the strings.

I would derive from special-mode.  You get read-only, scrolling and
a few other things for free, and you only have to (re)implement C-k to
delete lines (and creating the buffer/deriving the list from it again,
of course).  And much simpler than tabulated-list-mode.

OTOH, TLM is not /that/ complicated, as I wrote here:
http://mbork.pl/2015-07-18_TLM_vs_EWOC%2C_or_there_and_back_again
a few years ago.

Out of curiosity: what is the use-case?

Hth,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2018-07-23, at 03:05, Ben Bacarisse <ben.lists@bsb.me.uk> wrote:

> Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:
>
>> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
>> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
>> Any suggestions on how to implement this?
>>
>> My first thought is to write each string on a separate line in a
>> temporary buffer, allow the user to edit that, then reassemble the
>> buffer into a list, however, that isn't ideal, it allows too much
>> freedom to modify the content.  I could restrict the allowable
>> commands to deleting lines, but am wondering if there is a better way.
>
> You might consider using widgets:
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/widget.html
>
> You could write the strings as an "editable-list" widget without the
> [INS] buttons so only a [DEL] button available.

Nice idea, though a bit of work.  But widget.el is very powerful!  (I
wrote about it also in 2015:
http://mbork.pl/2015-11-21_The_Emacs_widget_library_and_automatic_modification_of_editing_fields)

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Joe Riel]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 06:21:05 +0200
Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> wrote:

> On 2018-07-23, at 04:39, Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> wrote:
> 
> > Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:
> >  
> >> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
> >> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
> >> Any suggestions on how to implement this?  
> >
> > You could try using `tabulated-list-mode', display your list of strings.
> > Then you could write a short command to remove a string from the list
> > and redisplay, and bind that in the local keymap. It's tiny bit
> > overkill, but would make it possible to do a bunch of other stuff with
> > the strings.  
> 
> I would derive from special-mode.  You get read-only, scrolling and
> a few other things for free, and you only have to (re)implement C-k to
> delete lines (and creating the buffer/deriving the list from it again,
> of course).  And much simpler than tabulated-list-mode.

Will take a look, thanks.

> OTOH, TLM is not /that/ complicated, as I wrote here:
> http://mbork.pl/2015-07-18_TLM_vs_EWOC%2C_or_there_and_back_again
> a few years ago.
> 
> Out of curiosity: what is the use-case?

It's part of a syntax checker/corrector for the Maple language.  A
tool (mint, analogous to lint) generates a buffer of the variables
that are undeclared in the source.  I grab the list and allow the user
to either quote them in the source or declare them as locals or
globals.  Being able to delete selected items from the list allows
performing a common operation on the remaining.  The typical case is
that almost all the variables should be quoted, but a few should be
declared as locals.


-- 
Joe Riel

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Yuri Khan]

On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 12:40 PM Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> wrote:
>
> It's part of a syntax checker/corrector for the Maple language.  A
> tool (mint, analogous to lint) generates a buffer of the variables
> that are undeclared in the source.  I grab the list and allow the user
> to either quote them in the source or declare them as locals or
> globals.  Being able to delete selected items from the list allows
> performing a common operation on the remaining.  The typical case is
> that almost all the variables should be quoted, but a few should be
> declared as locals.

For that case, there is a better UI idiom. You could let the user mark
multiple items with ‘m’, unmark with ‘u’, and perform common
operations on the marked items. For instances of this workflow, see
Dired, Ibuffer, and bookmark-bmenu-list.

The easiest implementation is probably still tabulated-list-mode and
you’ll have to implement marking, unmarking and
act-on-marked-items-or-item-at-point.

Re: Interactively edit a list of strings

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2018 02:05:57 +0100 Ben Bacarisse <ben.lists@bsb.me.uk> wrote:

> Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:
>
>> Am looking for a good way to interactively edit a list of strings,
>> that is, to allow the user to selectively delete strings from the list.
>> Any suggestions on how to implement this?  
>>
>> My first thought is to write each string on a separate line in a
>> temporary buffer, allow the user to edit that, then reassemble the
>> buffer into a list, however, that isn't ideal, it allows too much
>> freedom to modify the content.  I could restrict the allowable
>> commands to deleting lines, but am wondering if there is a better way.
>
> You might consider using widgets:

That's what recentf-mode does to delete items from recentf-list, see the
function recentf-edit-list.

Steve Berman