if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Tolkin, Steve]

Summary: If I bind the home key to the macro below and press shift+home
it does not select the text.  

Details:
I am running GNU Emacs 22.3.1 on of 2008-09-96 on SOFT-MJASON. On
windows XP SP2.
This used to work in emacs 22.  I suspect the problem has to do with
changes to cua-mode (which I have on) and/or transient mark-mode (which
I explicitly set on in v. 22,but now seems to be part of cua-mode.)

Here is the macro definition:

;; Posted to comp.emacs by:
;; Kai Grossjohann <Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
(defun my-home ()
  "Toggle the point between the beginning of the current line, and the
first non-whitespace character on the line."
  (interactive)
  (let ((pos (save-excursion (back-to-indentation) (point))))
    (if (equal pos (point))
        (beginning-of-line)
      (back-to-indentation))))

 (global-set-key [home] 'my-home)


My current workaround is simply to comment out the global-set-key line.
Is there a fix to the macro to get the old behavior?  Even better would
be something already in cua-mode or simple.el etc that i could use. 


Note: I am now also sending this to help-gnus-emacs because it was
suggested on the h-e-w list that this was not specific to Windows.


Thanks, 
Steve
-- 
Steven Tolkin    
There is nothing so practical as a good theory.  Comments are by me, 
not Fidelity Investments, its subsidiaries or affiliates.

Re: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Xah Lee]

On Nov 24, 4:21 pm, "Tolkin, Steve" <Steve.Tol...@FMR.COM> wrote:
> Summary: If I bind the home key to the macro below and press shift+home
> it does not select the text.
>
> Details:
> I am running GNU Emacs 22.3.1 on of 2008-09-96 on SOFT-MJASON. On
> windows XP SP2.
> This used to work in emacs 22.  I suspect the problem has to do with
> changes to cua-mode (which I have on) and/or transient mark-mode (which
> I explicitly set on in v. 22,but now seems to be part of cua-mode.)
>
> Here is the macro definition:
>
> ;; Posted to comp.emacs by:
> ;; Kai Grossjohann <Kai.Grossjoh...@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
> (defun my-home ()
>   "Toggle the point between the beginning of the current line, and the
> first non-whitespace character on the line."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((pos (save-excursion (back-to-indentation) (point))))
>     (if (equal pos (point))
>         (beginning-of-line)
>       (back-to-indentation))))
>
>  (global-set-key [home] 'my-home)
>
> My current workaround is simply to comment out the global-set-key line.
> Is there a fix to the macro to get the old behavior?  Even better would
> be something already in cua-mode or simple.el etc that i could use.
>
> Note: I am now also sending this to help-gnus-emacs because it was
> suggested on the h-e-w list that this was not specific to Windows.


Few notes and answers.

• what you called a macro is not a macro. It is just a lisp function,
or call it user written emacs command. A macro in emacs has 2
meanings: keyboard macro, and elisp macro. Keyboard macro is software
application feature that allows you to record your keystrokes and play
them back. It's purpose is to let you do a lot automations. As a
example, a OS wide macro system is QuicKeys. A lisp macro is a fetarue
of the computer language that allows you do do source code
transformation. In some sense, it is a crude form of term rewriting
languages. (e.g. Mathematica)

you can read about these here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_(computer_science)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica

As to your question, you can make it work by this:

(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

probably best to rename your function to something more descriptive,
such as
line-beginning-dwim . (the “dwim” means “do what i mean”, as in
comment-dwim.)

also, you might be interested in these commands:

just-one-space
delete-horizontal-space

both have default keyboard shortcuts.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

RE: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Tolkin, Steve]

Dear Xah,
	Thanks.  Why did I have to compile it for it to work? 
First I added this to my _emacs init file and then I tried it by doing a load-file of ~/_emacs 
But it did not work.
Then I ran byte-compile-file ~/_emacs and then a load-file of ~/_emacs.elc  

I pasted this just after the global-set-key line in my _emacs file and
;;; next suggested by Xah Lee email 11/25/08
(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+steve.tolkin=fmr.com@gnu.org [mailto:help-gnu-emacs-bounces+steve.tolkin=fmr.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Xah Lee
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:57 AM
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not selecttext in cua-mode

On Nov 24, 4:21 pm, "Tolkin, Steve" <Steve.Tol...@FMR.COM> wrote:
> Summary: If I bind the home key to the macro below and press shift+home
> it does not select the text.
>
> Details:
> I am running GNU Emacs 22.3.1 on of 2008-09-96 on SOFT-MJASON. On
> windows XP SP2.
> This used to work in emacs 22.  I suspect the problem has to do with
> changes to cua-mode (which I have on) and/or transient mark-mode (which
> I explicitly set on in v. 22,but now seems to be part of cua-mode.)
>
> Here is the macro definition:
>
> ;; Posted to comp.emacs by:
> ;; Kai Grossjohann <Kai.Grossjoh...@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
> (defun my-home ()
>   "Toggle the point between the beginning of the current line, and the
> first non-whitespace character on the line."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((pos (save-excursion (back-to-indentation) (point))))
>     (if (equal pos (point))
>         (beginning-of-line)
>       (back-to-indentation))))
>
>  (global-set-key [home] 'my-home)
>

[some snipped]
 
As to your question, you can make it work by this:

(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

[more snipped]

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

Re: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Lennart Borgman]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> wrote:
> As to your question, you can make it work by this:
>
> (add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
>  (lambda ()
>    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
>   )
>  )


Isn't it enough with just

    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)

RE: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Tolkin, Steve]

Sorry, my earlier statement that compiling the _emacs file changed the behavior was wrong.
Pressing Shift+home sometimes does the selection and sometimes it does not. 
I do not know what causes this. 

(The home key is assocated with the my-home lisp code below, and I added Xah's code to my _emacs.)

After I exited emacs and restarted it it no longer does the selection at all.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Tolkin, Steve 
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:15 AM
To: 'Xah Lee'; help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: RE: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

Dear Xah,
	Thanks.  Why did I have to compile it for it to work? 
First I added this to my _emacs init file and then I tried it by doing a load-file of ~/_emacs 
But it did not work.
Then I ran byte-compile-file ~/_emacs and then a load-file of ~/_emacs.elc  

I pasted this just after the global-set-key line in my _emacs file and
;;; next suggested by Xah Lee email 11/25/08
(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+steve.tolkin=fmr.com@gnu.org [mailto:help-gnu-emacs-bounces+steve.tolkin=fmr.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Xah Lee
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:57 AM
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not selecttext in cua-mode

On Nov 24, 4:21 pm, "Tolkin, Steve" <Steve.Tol...@FMR.COM> wrote:
> Summary: If I bind the home key to the macro below and press shift+home
> it does not select the text.
>
> Details:
> I am running GNU Emacs 22.3.1 on of 2008-09-96 on SOFT-MJASON. On
> windows XP SP2.
> This used to work in emacs 22.  I suspect the problem has to do with
> changes to cua-mode (which I have on) and/or transient mark-mode (which
> I explicitly set on in v. 22,but now seems to be part of cua-mode.)
>
> Here is the macro definition:
>
> ;; Posted to comp.emacs by:
> ;; Kai Grossjohann <Kai.Grossjoh...@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE>
> (defun my-home ()
>   "Toggle the point between the beginning of the current line, and the
> first non-whitespace character on the line."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((pos (save-excursion (back-to-indentation) (point))))
>     (if (equal pos (point))
>         (beginning-of-line)
>       (back-to-indentation))))
>
>  (global-set-key [home] 'my-home)
>

[some snipped]
 
As to your question, you can make it work by this:

(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

[more snipped]

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

Re: if I set home key to this macro then shift+home does not select text in cua-mode

[Xah Lee]

On Nov 25, 8:14 am, "Tolkin, Steve" <Steve.Tol...@FMR.COM> wrote:
>         Thanks.  Why did I have to compile it for it to work?
> First I added this to my _emacs init file and then I tried it by doing a load-file of ~/_emacs
> But it did not work.
> Then I ran byte-compile-file ~/_emacs and then a load-file of ~/_emacs.elc

Basically, when you modify a mode's hook, and that mode has already
been loaded, it won't re-load your new hook's value.

there are ways... but the simplest method is to restart emacs when you
modified a hook.

You don't need to byte compile it, and byte compiling shouldn't have
anything to do with this.

On Nov 25, 8:56 am, "Tolkin, Steve" <Steve.Tol...@FMR.COM> wrote:
> Sorry, my earlier statement that compiling the _emacs file changed the behavior was wrong.
> Pressing Shift+home sometimes does the selection and sometimes it does not.
> I do not know what causes this.

Looking at your function, you probably also want to add back-to-
indentation the CUA property of “'move”. So, try this new hook:

(add-hook 'cua-mode-hook
 (lambda ()
    (put 'my-home 'CUA 'move)
    (put 'back-to-indentation 'CUA 'move)
   )
 )

basically, what the above hooks do is that when cua mode is loaded,
add the property of “'move” to the symbol “'my-home”. Same for the
other. In lisp, symbols can have properties... this “symbol” concept
and its “property” is not something typical programing langs has. (the
other symbolic lang i know, Mathematica, has the same symbol and
property concepts. But i don't think any other functional langs such
as Haskell, OCml, erlang ... has it.)

Overall, what you are doing is not something simple. Because the
implementation of CUA mode is rather a complex. The reason it is
complex because it has to remain compatible with emacs's ways. Namely,
first: C-x key for copy has to remain functional for emacs's
traditional use of C-x key as a prefix. Secondly, the model of holding
Shift down while pressing other cursor movement key to cause text
selection is not something emacs do. So, making these work takes some
exploitation of elisp system. And now, you wanted to added your own
rather non-standard cursor movement function, and want the Shift+move
model to work on that too...

if the above works for you, that's great... but i think exploring
other ways of editing of doing what you want might be worthwhile.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄