What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Chris Seberino]

Sometimes you WANT auto-filling...sometimes you DO NOT.

e.g. When I am writing text like a comment in a program, I appreciate auto-filling.

When I want to squeeze as much in a single line in a computer program instruction
as possible, it gets in the way.

What is easiest way to have it both ways?  Must people keep turning it on
and off?

Thanks!

Chris

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Bastien]

Hi Chris,

Chris Seberino <cseberino@gmail.com> writes:

> What is easiest way to have it both ways?  Must people keep turning
> it on and off?

I use auto-fill-mode by default, I sometimes disable it when I don't
need auto-filling in the whole buffer, and I often use this:

(defun unfill-paragraph ()
  "Takes a multi-line paragraph and makes it into a single line of text."
  (interactive)
  (let ((fill-column (point-max)))
    (fill-paragraph nil)))

(define-key global-map "\M-Q" 'unfill-paragraph)

It lets me unfill a paragraph and put everything in one line when
needed.

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Bob Proulx]

Bastien wrote:
> Chris Seberino writes:
> > What is easiest way to have it both ways?  Must people keep turning
> > it on and off?
> 
> I use auto-fill-mode by default, I sometimes disable it when I don't
> need auto-filling in the whole buffer, and I often use this:
> 
> (defun unfill-paragraph ()
> ...
> (define-key global-map "\M-Q" 'unfill-paragraph)

I usually turn auto-fill-mode on and off.  "M-x auto-f" is
sufficiently short that I haven't bothered to do anything further.

When I want to join a paragraph of lines together I use M-^ which is
confusingly named delete-indentation, although the key character
mnemonic is perfect.

I put the point on the last line and then hold down the META and SHIFT
keys and press ^ once for each line and join what I want up into one
line.  Not as spiffy as the above suggestion but works in a default
configuration.

  delete-indentation is an interactive compiled Lisp function in
  `simple.el'.

  It is bound to M-^.

  (delete-indentation &optional ARG)

  Join this line to previous and fix up whitespace at join.
  If there is a fill prefix, delete it from the beginning of this line.
  With argument, join this line to following line.

Bob

RE: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't?Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Drew Adams]

> When I want to join a paragraph of lines together I use M-^ which is
> confusingly named delete-indentation, although the key character
> mnemonic is perfect.
> 
> I put the point on the last line and then hold down the META and SHIFT
> keys and press ^ once for each line and join what I want up into one
> line.

+1 for the usefulness of `M-^'; I use it a lot.

I particularly like the fact that it moves point to the join position, so you
can insert stuff there.

Even if I just want to insert a comment at the end of the previous line, it can
be quicker to use `M-^ M-; My comment C-j' than to use, say, `C-e C-p C-e M-; My
comment' (depending on where I want to end up).

[I also have `C-a' and `C-e' bound to repeatable bol/eol movements, so pressing
and holding `C-a' tracks up bols and `C-e' tracks down eols.  For instance, `C-a
C-a C-e' also takes me to the end of the previous line.  As a result I probably
use `C-a' and `C-e' a bit more, and `M-p' and `M-n' a bit less, than other users
do.

C-a/C-e as repeatable commands `(beginning|end)-of-line+' are here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/misc-cmds.el]

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 30.01.2013 um 08:48 schrieb Chris Seberino:

> Must people keep turning it on and off?

I select the region and replace the line breaks with SPACE or nothing. If necessary I clean up further and substitute clusters of SPACEs and TABs with single SPACE characters.

--
Greetings

  Pete

Perl—the only language that looks the same before and after RSA encryption.
				- Keith Bostic

RE: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary tokeep manually turning on/off?

[Drew Adams]

> Sometimes you WANT auto-filling...sometimes you DO NOT.
> e.g. When I am writing text like a comment in a program, I 
> appreciate auto-filling.
> 
> When I want to squeeze as much in a single line in a computer 
> program instruction as possible, it gets in the way.
> 
> What is easiest way to have it both ways?  Must people keep 
> turning it on and off?

1. You can create a toggle command that turns it on/off, and bind it to a quick
key.

2. You can use `C-x f N', where N is a large number (e.g. 999).  This, in
effect, turn it off.  Then `C-x f M', where M is your usual value of
`fill-column' (e.g. 70).

3. You can have it turned off by default in certain modes.  From your example,
it sounds like maybe the buffers (modes) where you type "computer program
instructions" should have it turned off by default.


Personally, I typically leave it on.  But in code I sometimes change the fill
column temporarily if I want longer comments in a particular location or file.

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary tokeep manually turning on/off?

[Chris Seberino]

On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 7:58:53 AM UTC-6, Drew Adams wrote:

> 2. You can use `C-x f N', where N is a large number (e.g. 999).  This, in
> 
> effect, turn it off.  Then `C-x f M', where M is your usual value of
> 
> `fill-column' (e.g. 70).

Thanks!

I like things to be 80 col wide.  The default fill-column is 70 for some
reason.  THAT is why it was so annoying to me.  I didn't reset it. 
Hopefully now that I've set it to 79 it will be nicer.

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary tokeep manually turning on/off?

[Bob Proulx]

Chris Seberino wrote:
> Drew Adams wrote:
> > 2. You can use `C-x f N', where N is a large number (e.g. 999).  This, in
> > effect, turn it off.  Then `C-x f M', where M is your usual value of
> > `fill-column' (e.g. 70).
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> I like things to be 80 col wide.  The default fill-column is 70 for some
> reason.  THAT is why it was so annoying to me.  I didn't reset it. 
> Hopefully now that I've set it to 79 it will be nicer.

Actually 72 has been a typically recommended value for fill column for
use on 80 column wide terminals.  Any setting between 64 and 72 has
typically been considered reasonable.  The RFC 1855 Netiquette
Guidelines says fewer than 65 which I think is too extreme.  Emacs has
defaulted to 70 which seems fine to me and I am using throughout this
message.  Setting to 79 I think is too large.

The emacs manual says:

     The maximum line width for filling is specified by the buffer-local
  variable `fill-column'.  The default value (*note Locals::) is 70.  The
  easiest way to set `fill-column' in the current buffer is to use the
  command `C-x f' (`set-fill-column').  With a numeric argument, it uses
  that as the new fill column.  With just `C-u' as argument, it sets
  `fill-column' to the current horizontal position of point.

The reason for a wrap setting that causes words to break and fill
before column 80 is so that replies to messages like the above will
have a little bit extra space to insert quoting marks.  The longest
line in Drew's message was 71 and it becomes the longest in Chris'
message at 74 and in mine at 77.  It is almost to the point where it
doesn't fit on an 80 column terminal and would need re-wrapping.

Bob

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary tokeep manually turning on/off?

[drain]

70 does seem pretty narrow to be the default. 



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Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary tokeep manually turning on/off?

[Chris Seberino]

On Jan 30, 5:03 pm, Bob Proulx <b...@proulx.com> wrote:
> The reason for a wrap setting that causes words to break and fill
> before column 80 is so that replies to messages like the above will
> have a little bit extra space to insert quoting marks.  The longest
> line in Drew's message was 71 and it becomes the longest in Chris'
> message at 74 and in mine at 77.  It is almost to the point where it
> doesn't fit on an 80 column terminal and would need re-wrapping.

 Why would emacs need to
add quotes for you?  Even if it did, why would quotes need more than
two spaces?

Maybe I don't understand correctly how auto filling works.
I only want things to move to a new line when I am beyond 80 columns,
not before.
I want a space to activate reshuffling of my text only when I'm beyond
the 80 column barrier.
It seems setting fill-column to 79 would do that.   I also have code
in my .emacs
to highlight lines that are longer than 80 columns.  Hopefully auto
filling will take care
of most long lines before that is needed.

cs

Re: What if sometimes want auto-filling and sometimes don't? Necessary to keep manually turning on/off?

[Glenn Morris]

Chris Seberino wrote:

> e.g. When I am writing text like a comment in a program, I appreciate
> auto-filling.
>
> When I want to squeeze as much in a single line in a computer program
> instruction as possible, it gets in the way.
>
> What is easiest way to have it both ways?

C-h v comment-auto-fill-only-comments