Re: middle mouse paste into isearch minibuffer

[Perry Wagle <wagle@mac.com>]

On Oct 25, 2011, at 3:33 AM, XeCycle wrote:

> Perry Wagle <wagle@mac.com> writes:
> 
>> I have a number of tools (like proof general) that I need to use, so I
>> really need to switch from years of xemacs to emacs.
>> 
>> But.
>> 
>> Using isearch on highlighted regions of text is way too clumsy in
>> emacs.
>> 
>> 
>> In xemacs, if I double-mouse-1 over some words with my right hand on
>> the mouse, and press control s with my left hand, then I can press
>> middle mouse with my right hand, which is still on the mouse, to paste
>> into the minibuffer.
>> 
>> In emacs, if I do the same, the isearch in the minibuffer IS ABORTED
>> and the highlighted region is pasted wherever the mouse happens to be
>> now.
> 
> So you want to search the word at point, right?  Try C-s C-w.  If you
> need more, just press C-w more.

No, I have something in my mouse-2 paste buffer, one way or another.

Also, I can double mouse-1 anywhere in a word.  Emacs wants me to be
more precise, by going to the beginning.

The mouse is not a precise instrument.  Rather, its a fast one, used properly.

>> In emacs, ESC y is wrong because it takes too long, requires both
>> hands for me to do accurately, and requires I take my right hand off
>> the mouse, and return it.
>> 
>> In emacs, moving the mouse cursor into the minibuffer and then
>> mouse-2'ing is wrong because it takes too long and is too hard to do
>> rapidly.
>> 
>> In this situation, all keyboard events are already going to the
>> minibuffer.  Having an option for people like me to have it also trap
>> mouse buttons seems like a good thing, especially with gesture mice
>> making the one-button mouse metaphor even more completely obsolete.
>> It IS aborting the isearch, so purity arguments don't hold here.  This
>> is a human factors issue, and emacs is losing.
>> 
>> I've tried a couple times to have this conversation, and most people
>> say "don't use the mouse".  Well, if the mouse is treated by emacs
>> (and not xemacs, for example), its no wonder that emacs people don't
>> use the mouse.  Its been rendered useless.
>> 
>> I want to make my mouse useful.  I use it a lot.  And I use the above
>> idiom a lot.
> 
> I suggest throwing away your mouse.

I suggest learning to use your mouse effectively with a real GUI.  Then come
back and make more refined suggestions.

> Some hints: Use isearch extensively.  Jump to somewhere with C-s (or
> C-r), and after you finished your edits there, jump back with C-u C-SPC
> --- you may press it more if it failed.

As I said above, the stuff gets into my mouse-2 paste buffer in a number of
ways.  I make no sense of the above.  It doesn't apply.

>> Apparently, I'm going to have to do this myself, unless someone else
>> sees my light this time.  What's the best way to do it?  I have the
>> feeling I'm fighting the foundations of emacs to try to funnel mouse
>> button events into the minibuffer.
>> 
>> Thanks for whatever help, hints, and guidance you can give me!

With a little help from #emacs, I got isearch.el to do what I want, by telling it 
to NOT abort itself if mouse-2 is pressed outside the minibuffer.  But now it 
drags the highlighted region all over the place when I keep pressing control s.

>> 
>> -- Perry
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Carl Lei (XeCycle)
> Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
> OpenPGP public key: 7795E591
> Fingerprint: 1FB6 7F1F D45D F681 C845 27F7 8D71 8EC4 7795 E591