RE: finding the hork point in ~/.emacs

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

[I really must remember that Reply All to you doesn't
send to the list, for some reason.  Sending again,
ccing it explicitly.]


> > If you use `C-u M-x comment-region' it UNcomments.
> 
> Try M-; for `comment-dwim'. It comments and then
> uncomments if the region contains a comment.

... which is not as good as `comment-region', IMHO.
I use `M-;' only for eol comments.  IMO, it's not
really made for block (un)commenting.

`comment-region' works well with nesting comment
blocks - it unnests a given level of nesting.
(Almost like having Common Lisp's `#|' and `|#'.)

`M-;' commenting or uncommenting a line in the
region, depending on whether the line is commented,
is never what I want.  It's a poor substitute for
uncommenting a given level of commenting.  YMMV.

> Also, this preserves comments already there. So if you have
> ... do M-;
> ... do M-; again ...

`comment-region' does all of that, & more, & better.

I actually use my `comment-region-lines', which I
bind to `C-x C-;':

(defun comment-region-lines (beg end &optional arg)
  "Like `comment-region', but comment/uncomment whole lines."
  (interactive "*r\nP")
  (when (> beg end)
    (setq beg  (prog1 end (setq end  beg))))
  (let ((bol  (save-excursion 
                (goto-char beg) 
                (line-beginning-position)))
        (eol  (save-excursion 
                (goto-char end) 
                (if (bolp) (point) (line-end-position)))))
    (comment-region bol eol arg)))
 
> M-; is also one of the most ergonomic keystrokes on
> the keyboard, so make sure to use it often :)

`M-;' has been there forever for eol comments, long
before they added half-baked region-(un)commenting
behavior to it.