Re: question about org-region-active-p

[Robert Goldman <rpgoldman@sift.info>]

Carsten Dominik wrote:
> Hi Robert,
> 
> no, I do not think this would make sense, to step out with
> an error, because all the commands that need a region will
> also work without one.  This is how regions work in Emacs.
> 
> If you find places in the documentation where this could
> be made clearer, let me know.

Thank you Carsten for the response.  I am still inclined to think that
this case is one where the user should get some warning because it's in
that bad class of bug-like situations where code quietly does something
that the user does not expect and that contradicts the documentation.

On the other hand, I can't see where one would raise an error.  It's not
an error to call org-region-active-p without transient-mark-mode; indeed
some libraries turn this on and off, and the user is entitled not to use it.

The call to export isn't right, because the export command does not give
the system any opportunity to infer whether the user intended to operate
on a region or on the whole.  So there's no way to tell that the user's
expectations are going to be violated.

The loading of org-mode isn't the right place, either, since the vast
majority of org-mode works just fine with t-m-m turned off.

I'm inclined to think that the answer is simply that one shouldn't turn
transient-mark-mode off, ever.  This works for me, but I hate to think
of the next person coming along to fall into this same trap, from which
the only means of escape is to inspect the source code and use the debugger.

I would suggest a modification to the manual and will submit one, but
need clarification about one issue:  the use of t-m-m seems to be a
fallback for older emacsen that don't have region-active-p.  I have such
an emacs, so I don't know --- does this mean that on newer emacsen
org-region-active-p will work even without transient-mark-mode?

Best,
Robert