From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Marcin Borkowski Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Why does Emacs lack `backward-delete-word`? Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 16:37:24 +0100 Message-ID: <8760wyz4cr.fsf@mbork.pl> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1457365091 29785 80.91.229.3 (7 Mar 2016 15:38:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 15:38:11 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: egarrulo Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Mar 07 16:38:04 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1acxEQ-00034P-CG for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 16:38:02 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:56486 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1acxEP-0000TT-Nr for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:38:01 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:39577) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1acxE9-0000T8-AC for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:37:46 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1acxE4-0001jI-7H for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:37:45 -0500 Original-Received: from mail.mojserwer.eu ([2a01:5e00:2:52::8]:35117) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1acxE3-0001gT-LR for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:37:40 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.mojserwer.eu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C5B79E0F68; Mon, 7 Mar 2016 16:37:30 +0100 (CET) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at mail.mojserwer.eu Original-Received: from mail.mojserwer.eu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mail.mojserwer.eu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id D6h+SuHXXixP; Mon, 7 Mar 2016 16:37:26 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from localhost (unknown [109.232.24.28]) by mail.mojserwer.eu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 35E979E0F66; Mon, 7 Mar 2016 16:37:26 +0100 (CET) User-agent: mu4e 0.9.13; emacs 25.1.50.6 In-reply-to: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 2a01:5e00:2:52::8 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:109502 Archived-At: On 2016-03-07, at 13:08, egarrulo wrote: > On 07/03/16 04:21, Robert Thorpe wrote: >> As Stefan says, it's not usually necessary. M-y can skip past >> irrelevant kills. Also, if you know you're going to add something >> useless to the kill ring, then you can just use backspace. Getting rid >> of a word with backspace, in the few occasions when it's necessary, >> isn't that slow. >> >> But, in keyboard macros it can be troublesome. If M-y has to be used in >> a macro that generally spells trouble. Also, kills are slower than >> deletes. For those reasons I define delete-word in the obvious way, >> like kill-word but using delete-region instead of kill-region. I don't >> bind it to a key though, I just use M-x when I need it, which is only >> when using keyboard macros. > > Your indirect explanation for the lack of a key for `delete-region` > sounds plausible. > > Maybe my question is a symptom of a more general problem: inexperienced > Emacs users, don't know how to edit effectively with vanilla Emacs, > especially when they come from mainstream editors. The manual explains > Emacs commands, but not how they "work" together. For example, I > remember a Emacs user commenting that it is often quicker to kill and > yank some text, than to copy it. Not very intuitive, I would say. > Therefore, some users might feel frustrated because they are trying to > accomplish something by unknowingly "going against the grain" of Emacs. 0. Good points. 1. Mickey Petersen's blog and book. 2. M-w. Best, -- Marcin Borkowski http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science Adam Mickiewicz University