From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Cc: 7196-done@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#7196: 24.0.50; NEWS item "Selection changes"
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:02:54 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <83tyknbd8h.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <2875E7FCA91F426A937B145EB538F89D@us.oracle.com>
> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Cc: <7196@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:49:06 -0700
>
> > > The NEWS item is woefully incomplete. It doesn't explain much of
> > > anything about the selection changes for Emacs 24 - and they are
> > > radical changes.
> > >
> > > Among other things, NEWS should detail the differences from the
> > > previous behavior, and explain clearly how to return to the
> > > previous behavior (exactly, completely).
> >
> > The new text is reproduced below. If it is good enough, this bug
> > report can be closed.
>
> Thanks for taking a stab at it. Some suggestions and questions below.
>
> For info, are the following statements correct?
Most of the time, but not always, depending on customizations.
Why is that important?
> #1 needs to also say something about the other systems, which do not support a
> separate primary: e.g. do they put the selection on the clipboard? the kill
> ring? Where do they put it?
They do nothing and don't put the text anywhere outside Emacs.
> > Only commands that kill text or copy it to the
> > kill-ring (C-w, M-w, C-k, etc.) put the killed text into the
> > clipboard. Selected text is put into the primary selection (on
> > systems, such as X, that support the primary selection
> > separately from the clipboard).
>
> Is it (a) "put into the primary selection" or (b) "becomes the primary
> selection"?
We use "put text into primary" and "set the primary with the text"
interchangeably.
> I.e., does it replace the existing primary or is it added
> (prepended/appended) to it? I'm guessing (b), and that this is different from
> the kill ring.
It replaces the old content.
> I don't know about the clipboard - is it a list or ring, like the
> kill ring?
It's a single buffer.
> Anyway, if in some cases we replace what was in some location
> and in other cases we add to it, those cases need to be distinguished. "Put
> into" implies a container of a collection.
I believe every user nowadays knows what happens with text that is put
into the clipboard or the primary selection. Anyway, NEWS entries are
not for explaining these issues.
> What happens to selected text on systems that do _not_ support a primary
> selection separate from the clipboard?
Nothing. They stay Emacs selections.
> Please add that info - don't just say what happens for X.
There's nothing to tell. This functionality does not exist on non-X
systems, so whatever happens on X does not happen elsewhere.
> > Similarly, Emacs by default does not retrieve text from the
> > clipboard when the mouse (e.g., mouse-2) is used for pasting text
> > selected in another application.
>
> Say here where it _is_ retrieved from for the mouse, before going on to talk
> about retrieval from the clipboard.
I transposed the two sentences, although I don't think a distance of
one sentence obfuscates the meaning enough to be confusing.
> Why "in another application"? If not also true for text selected in Emacs, then
> state also what the case for that text is.
I set out to describe changes wrt exchange of text between Emacs and
other applications. This is what this NEWS entry is about; it is not
about selected text in Emacs in general.
> > Mouse commands that paste text retrieve text from the primary
> > selection, on systems that support it separately from the clipboard.
>
> And retrieved from where on other systems?
Not retrieved at all.
> > In other words, the default behavior is that mouse gestures that
>
> Mouse actions - mouse gestures are typically thought of as something different.
"Mouse gestures" is frequently used terminology.
> > while keyboard commands that kill/copy and paste text work with the
> clipboard.
>
> I wouldn't say "copy", since there are different kinds of copy.
The "text" part in "kill/copy text" should disambiguate that.
> > This change also means that the "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items of
> > the menu-bar "Edit" menu are now exactly equivalent to, respectively
> > M-w, C-w, and C-y.
>
> I didn't realize that BTW. That means that on Windows they are _not_ equivalent
> to the Windows menus of the same names.
Why not? I think they are.
> > To get back the previous behavior, whereby mouse gestures
>
> Just mouse _selection_, no? Not also mouse-2 (paste).
The part after "whereby" describes what behavior I had in mind.
> Be clear - to get back the previous behavior, _set them to_ t (or whatever the
> value is). Don't just say customize them; say what to customize them to.
I added non-nil.
> > If you don't want Emacs to put the text into the clipboard, only to
> > the primary selection, additionally customize
> > `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
>
> I'm lost now.
Not clear why.
> It's not clear, to start out with, what "the previous behavior" was.
The "whereby..." part says what it was.
> You made
> it clear that now selecting with the mouse sets the primary but not also the
> clipboard or the kill ring. What's not clear is what the previous behavior was
> (all its aspects) and therefore what each of the options is for - which part(s)
> of the previous behavior each restores.
Detailed description of the previous behavior is outside the scope of
NEWS entries. Especially since the previous behavior was confusingly
inconsistent on X.
> > These changes in the default behavior are reflected in the default
> > values of several variables:
>
> Maybe it would help to start with that.
We will risk losing the reader before she gets to the important parts.
> > It also accepts a new value, `only', which means to only set the
> > primary selection for temporarily active regions (usually made by
> > mouse-dragging or shift-selection).
>
> BTW, why `only' and not `temporarily' or `immediate' or `on-the-fly' or some
> such?
I don't know why, I just documented it.
> > *** `mouse-2' is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
> > Previously, it was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click' (which is now
> > unbound by default.
> ^
> )
>
> What's the difference in _behavior_? Why make readers look up each of those
> commands in order to understand what's changed?
Because that's what we do in general in NEWS: give the reader enough
info to go and find the details by using documentation commands.
Anything else would bloat NEWS to unreasonable proportions.
> > *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
> > This variable exists only on X; its default value was t in previous
> > versions.
>
> What does it do?
The doc string tells the whole story.
> > *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
>
> What's the consequence for user-visible behavior?
I don't know. And neither do others, I think -- this functionality is
long obsolete and unused.
I fixed the typos you pointed out, thanks.
prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-10-15 17:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-10-12 14:56 bug#7196: 24.0.50; NEWS item "Selection changes" Drew Adams
2010-10-12 15:52 ` Drew Adams
2010-10-15 11:36 ` Eli Zaretskii
2010-10-15 15:49 ` Drew Adams
2010-10-15 17:02 ` Eli Zaretskii [this message]
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