How to copy rectangles

How to copy rectangles

[Siegfried Heintze]

There is a nice yank-rectangle command -- I really like it.

My problem is that there is only a kill-rectangle command. Why is there no
kill-rectangle-save command? I need it!

I can copy a rectangle to a register with copy-rectangle command, but how do
I extract it from the register? There is no insert-rectangle command. I
guess insert-register works. Well anyway, does anyone have a
kill-rectangle-save command I could have? Was it omitted intentionally?

  Thanks for the good work you guys!
  Sieg

Re: How to copy rectangles

[roodwriter]

Siegfried Heintze wrote:

> There is a nice yank-rectangle command -- I really like it.
> 
> My problem is that there is only a kill-rectangle command. Why is there no
> kill-rectangle-save command? I need it!
> 
> I can copy a rectangle to a register with copy-rectangle command, but how
> do I extract it from the register? There is no insert-rectangle command. I
> guess insert-register works. Well anyway, does anyone have a
> kill-rectangle-save command I could have? Was it omitted intentionally?
> 
>   Thanks for the good work you guys!
>   Sieg


I was just looking at the date on your posting. I wasn't planning to answer 
it because I don't know of one. But the thought occurred to me that maybe 
that's the reason no one else has answered.

Just a thought: Would it be easier for you to make a macro with a different 
keybinding to insert the rectangle to and from your register? Would that 
simplify things?

I did something similar with query-replace. It's easier for me to type C-c q 
than M-%. Sometimes there are better shortcuts.

For what it's worth.

--Rod

-- 
Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answered for Practical Consumers" 
and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." Both are available at 
http://www.rodwriterpublishing.com/index.html

To reply by e-mail, take the extra "o" out of the name.

Re: How to copy rectangles

[Martin Stone Davis]

Siegfried Heintze wrote:

> There is a nice yank-rectangle command -- I really like it.
> 
> My problem is that there is only a kill-rectangle command. Why is there no
> kill-rectangle-save command? I need it!

Have you tried cua.el?

http://www.cua.dk/cua.html

-Martin

Re: How to copy rectangles

[Gareth Rees]

Siegfried Heintze wrote:
> Why is there no kill-rectangle-save command? I need it!

Because you can use 'copy-rectangle-to-register' (C-x r r REGISTER) to
save a copy, and 'insert-register' (C-x r i REGISTER) to insert it.

However, it's easy to roll your own:

    (defun kill-rectangle-save (start end)
      "Save the region-rectangle as the last killed one."
      (interactive "r")
      (require 'rect)  ; Make sure killed-rectangle is defvar'ed.
      (setq killed-rectangle (extract-rectangle start end)))

-- 
Gareth Rees

Re: How to copy rectangles

[Sandip Chitale]

gareth.rees@pobox.com (Gareth Rees) wrote in message news:<e867ce6d.0310130434.2da5327c@posting.google.com>...
> Siegfried Heintze wrote:
> > Why is there no kill-rectangle-save command? I need it!
> 
> Because you can use 'copy-rectangle-to-register' (C-x r r REGISTER) to
> save a copy, and 'insert-register' (C-x r i REGISTER) to insert it.
> 
> However, it's easy to roll your own:
> 
>     (defun kill-rectangle-save (start end)
>       "Save the region-rectangle as the last killed one."
>       (interactive "r")
>       (require 'rect)  ; Make sure killed-rectangle is defvar'ed.
>       (setq killed-rectangle (extract-rectangle start end)))

Thanks. I have added the above function to my .emacs now.

Can anyone tell me as to why this is not supported by emacs by
default? One would think this is very useful and commonly used
function.

Re: How to copy rectangles

[Gareth Rees]

Sandip Chitale:
> Can anyone tell me as to why [kill-rectangle-save] is not supported by
> Emacs by default? One would think this is very useful and commonly
> used function.

I don't know.  It's probably an oversight.  Why not report it (use M-x
report-emacs-bug) or submit a patch?  The hardest part of implementing
it would be to pick a good default keybinding (perhaps 'C-x r C-w' or
'C-x r M-w'?).

-- 
Gareth Rees   http://www.garethrees.org/

Re: How to copy rectangles

[Sandip Chitale]

gareth.rees@pobox.com (Gareth Rees) wrote in message news:<e867ce6d.0310150203.309dbbcf@posting.google.com>...
> Sandip Chitale:
> > Can anyone tell me as to why [kill-rectangle-save] is not supported by
> > Emacs by default? One would think this is very useful and commonly
> > used function.
> 
> I don't know.  It's probably an oversight.  Why not report it (use M-x
> report-emacs-bug) or submit a patch?  The hardest part of implementing
> it would be to pick a good default keybinding (perhaps 'C-x r C-w' or
> 'C-x r M-w'?).

I have sent the following bug report to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org:

There is copy-rectangle-to-register but no mechanism to copy
rectangle to kill ring which can be pasted using 

C-x r y (i.e. yank-rectangle)

However there is no kill-rectangle-save which is along the lines of
kill-ring-save except it applies to rectangle.

Proposed key binding:

C-x r M-w.