How to clear a register

How to clear a register

[Harry P]

I'm probably blind but when looking through the register related
commands under C-h b.  I don't see something to delete or clear or
even edit a register once you've inserted something in it.

I had no better luck with M-x apropos <ret> register <ret>
Searching for delete, clear, dump, remove.

I see how (using a prefix arg) I can delete a region from the source
when its sent to a register but no way to mess with what is inside a
register.  Don't even see a way to overwrite a register.

Using the i (index) search in the emacs manual to get to the section
on registers... I still see nothing about editing, deleting.

So, I've pretty well exhausted my knowledge of how to find something in
emacs documentation.

Is there any way provided to delete or edit or at least overwrite, text
in a register? 

Re: How to clear a register

[Asgeir]

Do you really need to clear a register ?
You can just override your register saving another information in it.
But effectively, (info "(emacs)registers") does not show any function to
clear a register. It must be useless, therefore.

Harry P <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> I'm probably blind but when looking through the register related
> commands under C-h b.  I don't see something to delete or clear or
> even edit a register once you've inserted something in it.
>
> I had no better luck with M-x apropos <ret> register <ret>
> Searching for delete, clear, dump, remove.
>
> I see how (using a prefix arg) I can delete a region from the source
> when its sent to a register but no way to mess with what is inside a
> register.  Don't even see a way to overwrite a register.
>
> Using the i (index) search in the emacs manual to get to the section
> on registers... I still see nothing about editing, deleting.
>
> So, I've pretty well exhausted my knowledge of how to find something in
> emacs documentation.
>
> Is there any way provided to delete or edit or at least overwrite, text
> in a register? 
>
>
>

-- 
Asgeir

Re: How to clear a register

[Bastien]

Hi Harry,

Harry P <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Is there any way provided to delete or edit or at least overwrite,
> text in a register?

You might have a look at register-list.el:

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

You can list registers and interactively edit them.
You can even edit rectangles easily.

Feedback welcome!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: How to clear a register

[Asgeir]

In fact, from register-list.el, you can delete a register evaluating
this Emacs Lisp expression (with M-: for example):

    (delete reg register-alist)

register-alist is the list where are stored the registers.
-- 
Asgeir

Re: How to clear a register

[Harry Putnam]

Asgeir <asgeir@free.fr> writes:

> Do you really need to clear a register ?
> You can just override your register saving another information in it.
> But effectively, (info "(emacs)registers") does not show any function to
> clear a register. It must be useless, therefore.

Yeah... I see it is useless... I did mention that I saw no way to
overwrite a register, but of course there is.

Harry wrote:
>> I see how (using a prefix arg) I can delete a region from the source
>> when its sent to a register but no way to mess with what is inside a
>> register.  Don't even see a way to overwrite a register.

I'd gotten hungup on using C-x <left|right>  which of course.. appends
to a register... not realizing I could use C-x r s to overwrite a
register.

Sorry for the line noise.

Re: How to clear a register

[Harry Putnam]

Bastien <bastienguerry@googlemail.com> writes:

> Hi Harry,
>
> Harry P <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
>> Is there any way provided to delete or edit or at least overwrite,
>> text in a register?
>
> You might have a look at register-list.el:
>
>   http://lumiere.ens.fr/~guerry/u/register-list.el
>
> You can list registers and interactively edit them.
> You can even edit rectangles easily.

Thank you... it looks interesting

Re: How to clear a register

[Xah Lee]

btw, i find the whole processing of copying to register and giving a
name and pasting from register with a name too cumbersome. So i have:

(defun copy-to-register-1 (p1 p2)
  "Copy text selection to register named “1”."
  (interactive "r")
  (copy-to-register ?1 p1 p2 )
  )

(defun insert-register-content-1 ()
  "Insert register named “1”'s content."
  (interactive)
  (insert-register ?1)
  )

(defalias 'cp1 'copy-to-register-1)
(defalias 'pst1 'insert-register-content-1)

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄