hang while marking large region

hang while marking large region

[andrew.tao]

hello,

i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs. when i set the mark and then scroll to a
distant area in a text file, xemacs hangs. we're talking about a few
megabytes of data being marked.

it seems that xemacs must be trying to copy the marked region
somewhere and then hanging.

any ideas for a workaround?

thanks,
andrew

Re: hang while marking large region

[Sven Joachim]

On 2008-05-09 18:45 +0200, andrew.tao@gmail.com wrote:

> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs.

This newsgroup is for GNU Emacs only, you had better try
comp.emacs.xemacs instead.  Also, 21.1.13 is an ancient unsupported
version, please upgrade to 21.4.x.

Sven

Re: hang while marking large region

[Dan Espen]

Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de> writes:

> On 2008-05-09 18:45 +0200, andrew.tao@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs.
>
> This newsgroup is for GNU Emacs only, you had better try
> comp.emacs.xemacs instead.  Also, 21.1.13 is an ancient unsupported
> version, please upgrade to 21.4.x.

I don't see posts from Google Groups.

That's a common problem.
XEmacs is using the X cut buffer.
There is a fix, but a later release is a better idea.

Re: hang while marking large region

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 09.05.2008 um 18:45 schrieb andrew.tao:

> any ideas for a workaround?


Make the buffer read-write. Remove with delete-region (does not add  
to kill-ring) what you don't want. Save the remainder, the useful  
part, in a new file. This file can be included in other files or  
buffers.

Can you copy to a register in XEmacs, C-x r x <register>?

--
Greetings

   Pete

Every instructor assumes that you have nothing else to do except  
study for that instructor's course.
				– Fourth Law of Applied Terror

Re: hang while marking large region

[Joel J. Adamson]

andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:

> hello,
>
> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs. when i set the mark and then scroll to a
> distant area in a text file, xemacs hangs. we're talking about a few
> megabytes of data being marked.

Please distinguish between Emacs using an X display and the separate
software project XEmacs.

> it seems that xemacs must be trying to copy the marked region
> somewhere and then hanging.
>
> any ideas for a workaround?

Workaround: don't use XEmacs.

This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
to switch.

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html

Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Biostatistician
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA  02114
(617) 643-1432
(303) 880-3109
Public key: http://pgp.mit.edu
http://www.unc.edu/~adamsonj

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Re: hang while marking large region

[David Kastrup]

jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:

> andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:
>
>> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs. when i set the mark and then scroll to a
>> distant area in a text file, xemacs hangs. we're talking about a few
>> megabytes of data being marked.
>
> Please distinguish between Emacs using an X display and the separate
> software project XEmacs.
>
>> it seems that xemacs must be trying to copy the marked region
>> somewhere and then hanging.
>>
>> any ideas for a workaround?
>
> Workaround: don't use XEmacs.
>
> This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
> to switch.
>
> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html

Well, this XEmacs (21.1.13) certainly lived long.  If you switched to a
similarly outdated Emacs, you would probably not gain much of an
advantage.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: hang while marking large region

[Dan Espen]

jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:

> andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:
>
>> hello,
>>
>> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs. when i set the mark and then scroll to a
>> distant area in a text file, xemacs hangs. we're talking about a few
>> megabytes of data being marked.
>
> Please distinguish between Emacs using an X display and the separate
> software project XEmacs.
>
>> it seems that xemacs must be trying to copy the marked region
>> somewhere and then hanging.
>>
>> any ideas for a workaround?
>
> Workaround: don't use XEmacs.
>
> This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
> to switch.
>
> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html

Never seen the XEmacs stability problem you describe.
I start XEmacs when I boot the machine and it stays up until I loose power.
When I started using XEmacs Lucid was still in business.

Here's the FAQ on the slowness:

http://www.xemacs.org/Documentation/21.5/html/xemacs-faq_4.html#SEC152

I think it's a non-issue on recent releases.
I use the X version remotely every day and I don't have any of
those workarounds.

That said, switching to GNU Emacs is probably a good way to go.

Re: hang while marking large region

[Joel J. Adamson]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:
>
>> andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:
>> Workaround: don't use XEmacs.
>>
>> This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
>> to switch.
>>
>> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html
>
> Well, this XEmacs (21.1.13) certainly lived long.  If you switched to a
> similarly outdated Emacs, you would probably not gain much of an
> advantage.

Definitely.  My point was that one of the biggest things I noticed when
converting from XEmacs to Emacs was that fontification no longer took
the length of a bathroom break.  I thought it was just a fact of life.
I thought that it was just the subject of "Emacs Makes a Computer Slow."

I was wrong.  It made me seriously question why I chose XEmacs in the
first place.

Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Biostatistician
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA  02114
(617) 643-1432
(303) 880-3109
Public key: http://pgp.mit.edu
http://www.unc.edu/~adamsonj

Ineffective security measure:

The information transmitted in this electronic communication is intended only
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Re: hang while marking large region

[David Kastrup]

jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:
>>
>>> andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:
>>> Workaround: don't use XEmacs.
>>>
>>> This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
>>> to switch.
>>>
>>> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html
>>
>> Well, this XEmacs (21.1.13) certainly lived long.  If you switched to a
>> similarly outdated Emacs, you would probably not gain much of an
>> advantage.
>
> Definitely.  My point was that one of the biggest things I noticed
> when converting from XEmacs to Emacs was that fontification no longer
> took the length of a bathroom break.  I thought it was just a fact of
> life.  I thought that it was just the subject of "Emacs Makes a
> Computer Slow."

It is not an accident.  Before font-lock-mode was allowed by Richard
Stallman to become the default in Emacs, its performance had to be par
for _all_ files.

So its proponents worked really hard.  The barriers in XEmacs are
smaller.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: hang while marking large region

[Joel J. Adamson]

Dan Espen <daneNO@MORE.mk.SPAMtelcordia.com> writes:

> jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) writes:
>
>> andrew.tao@gmail.com writes:
>>
>>> hello,
>>>
>>> i'm using 21.1.13 xemacs. when i set the mark and then scroll to a
>>> distant area in a text file, xemacs hangs. we're talking about a few
>>> megabytes of data being marked.
>>
>> Please distinguish between Emacs using an X display and the separate
>> software project XEmacs.
>>
>>> it seems that xemacs must be trying to copy the marked region
>>> somewhere and then hanging.
>>>
>>> any ideas for a workaround?
>>
>> Workaround: don't use XEmacs.
>>
>> This is a known problem.  I had this same problem and the solution was
>> to switch.
>>
>> http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/04/xemacs-is-dead-long-live-xemacs.html
>
> Never seen the XEmacs stability problem you describe.

I didn't describe it, Steve Yegge described it.  I didn't have the
stability problems he describes either, but I did have annoying hang-ups
with fontification and a few other things.

> That said, switching to GNU Emacs is probably a good way to go.

You can find a page on the subject here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/EmacsAndXEmacs

That page helped me make the choice.  Like I said, I can't remember why
I picked XEmacs, I think because I saw a screenshot of it heavily
customized.  However, my customizations now go a lot further in Emacs.

Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Biostatistician
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA  02114
(617) 643-1432
(303) 880-3109
Public key: http://pgp.mit.edu
http://www.unc.edu/~adamsonj

Ineffective security measure:

The information transmitted in this electronic communication is intended only
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