getting jerked around by C-x h (select whole buffer as region)

getting jerked around by C-x h (select whole buffer as region)

[Harry Putnam]

How can I avoid being jerked to the top of a large buffer when I run
the command C-x h (select whole buffer as region).

Its quite irritating to be viewing certain lines then be jerked clear
into the next state suddenly.  Especiall since C-x C-x doens't bring
you back to ground zero. Instead it jerks to the bottom of the buffer.

In fact that has the ear marks of a bug maybe.

wc -l shows 789

emacs +30 file
We make changes at 30, 93, 74, 390, 456
We are now at ground zero 456

We decide for some reason to select the who buffer, maybe to feed it
thru a shell script or something.
 
We press C-x h.. zoom-Jerko .. Now we are at line 1
We press C-x C-x.. zoom-Jerko now we are at line 789

Well ya, one can save marks in regesters or whatever, but why all the
commotion to begin with?  Hard to imagine a time when our user would
want that.  Seems she most likely would want to remain at marks location.

Re: getting jerked around by C-x h (select whole buffer as region)

[Kai Großjohann]

Harry Putnam <hgp@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> How can I avoid being jerked to the top of a large buffer when I run
> the command C-x h (select whole buffer as region).

This is not possible: the region is always the stretch of text
between point and mark.  So either point or mark must be at the
beginning of the buffer, and the other must be at the end.

I wonder if C-u C-SPC takes you back (possibly repeat a couple of
times).  If not, then you might have to do C-SPC before C-x h so that
C-u C-SPC can take you back.
-- 
A turnip curses Elvis

Re: getting jerked around by C-x h (select whole buffer as region)

[Harry Putnam]

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kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Harry Putnam <hgp@sbcglobal.net> writes:
>
>> How can I avoid being jerked to the top of a large buffer when I run
>> the command C-x h (select whole buffer as region).
>
> This is not possible: the region is always the stretch of text
> between point and mark.  So either point or mark must be at the
> beginning of the buffer, and the other must be at the end.

Some one sent me code privately that does it.  But I hadn't really
considered the actual mechanics; point-min and point-max being the
region and all.  However, I wonder if it would be serious bloatation
to add code to C-x h that remembers starting mark.

>
> I wonder if C-u C-SPC takes you back (possibly repeat a couple of
> times).  If not, then you might have to do C-SPC before C-x h so that
> C-u C-SPC can take you back.

Turns out this does work.  I didn't know about C-u C-SPC.  It takes
two jumps to get back .... thanks.