Re: Yanking isearch to highlight-regexp

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

> Why is not C-x w h always bound to higlight-regexp?

I think the key `C-x w' by its mnemonics would be more suitable for
a command that writes to the file like `C-x C-w'.

As the comment in hi-lock.el suggests to bind it rather to `C-z h',
below is a patch for isearch.el with a new command `isearch-highlight-regexp'
bound to `M-s h'.  It is equivalent to the previously implemented
`isearch-occur' in regard to calling the command with the last isearch
string/regexp.  `isearch-highlight-regexp' is a useful command, and
it is much better than setting `lazy-highlight-cleanup' to nil, because
`lazy-highlight-cleanup' leaves highlighting limited only to the current
window boundaries, whereas `highlight-regexp' highlights the entire buffer.

As for the separate case of running `highlight-regexp' after isearch is
finished, I suggest using the same default values as already provided by
`occur-read-primary-args' and `keep-lines-read-args' that collect a list
of useful regexps from different places including the last isearch string
and put them to the list of default values.

This also suggests to get rid of `hi-lock-regexp-history' in favor of
the single regexp history variable `regexp-history' shared among all
regexp-reading commands (perhaps `keep-lines-read-args' should be
renamed to more general name like `read-regexp').

Another improvement I propose is to put a list of default faces to the
minibuffer's list of default values accessible via M-n instead of
putting default values to the history list where the user expects
to find the history list of previous input.

Index: lisp/isearch.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/emacs/emacs/lisp/isearch.el,v
retrieving revision 1.321
diff -u -r1.321 isearch.el
--- lisp/isearch.el	11 May 2008 20:30:27 -0000	1.321
+++ lisp/isearch.el	15 Jun 2008 20:43:00 -0000
@@ -494,6 +494,7 @@
     (define-key map [?\M-%] 'isearch-query-replace)
     (define-key map [?\C-\M-%] 'isearch-query-replace-regexp)
     (define-key map "\M-so" 'isearch-occur)
+    (define-key map "\M-sh" 'isearch-highlight-regexp)
 
     map)
   "Keymap for `isearch-mode'.")
@@ -1364,6 +1365,21 @@
 	(search-upper-case nil))
     (occur regexp nlines)))
 
+(defun isearch-highlight-regexp (regexp &optional face)
+  "Run `highlight-regexp' with regexp from the current search string.
+Interactively, REGEXP is the current search regexp or a quoted search
+string.  FACE has the same meaning as in `highlight-regexp'."
+  (interactive
+   (list
+    (hi-lock-regexp-okay
+     (if isearch-regexp isearch-string (regexp-quote isearch-string)))
+    (hi-lock-read-face-name)))
+  (isearch-done)
+  (isearch-clean-overlays)
+  (let ((case-fold-search isearch-case-fold-search))
+    (hi-lock-face-buffer regexp face)))
+
 \f
 (defun isearch-delete-char ()
   "Discard last input item and move point back.

Index: lisp/hi-lock.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/emacs/emacs/lisp/hi-lock.el,v
retrieving revision 1.51
diff -u -r1.51 hi-lock.el
--- lisp/hi-lock.el	6 May 2008 07:57:38 -0000	1.51
+++ lisp/hi-lock.el	15 Jun 2008 20:43:34 -0000
@@ -206,12 +206,12 @@
 (defvar hi-lock-interactive-patterns nil
   "Patterns provided to hi-lock by user.  Should not be changed.")
 
-(defvar hi-lock-face-history
+(defvar hi-lock-face-defaults
   (list "hi-yellow" "hi-pink" "hi-green" "hi-blue" "hi-black-b"
         "hi-blue-b" "hi-red-b" "hi-green-b" "hi-black-hb")
-      "History list of faces for hi-lock interactive functions.")
+      "A list of default faces for hi-lock interactive functions.")
 
-;(dolist (f hi-lock-face-history) (unless (facep f) (error "%s not a face" f)))
+;(dolist (f hi-lock-face-defaults) (unless (facep f) (error "%s not a face" f)))
 
 (defvar hi-lock-regexp-history nil
   "History of regexps used for interactive fontification.")
@@ -390,14 +390,13 @@
 
 Interactively, prompt for REGEXP then FACE.  Buffer-local history
 list maintained for regexps, global history maintained for faces.
-\\<minibuffer-local-map>Use \\[next-history-element] and \\[previous-history-element] to retrieve next or previous history item.
+\\<minibuffer-local-map>Use \\[previous-history-element] to retrieve previous history items,
+and \\[next-history-element] to retrieve default values.
 \(See info node `Minibuffer History'.)"
   (interactive
    (list
     (hi-lock-regexp-okay
-     (read-from-minibuffer "Regexp to highlight line: "
-                           (cons (or (car hi-lock-regexp-history) "") 1 )
-                           nil nil 'hi-lock-regexp-history))
+     (keep-lines-read-args "Regexp to highlight line: "))
     (hi-lock-read-face-name)))
   (or (facep face) (setq face 'hi-yellow))
   (unless hi-lock-mode (hi-lock-mode 1))
@@ -415,14 +414,13 @@
 
 Interactively, prompt for REGEXP then FACE.  Buffer-local history
 list maintained for regexps, global history maintained for faces.
-\\<minibuffer-local-map>Use \\[next-history-element] and \\[previous-history-element] to retrieve next or previous history item.
+\\<minibuffer-local-map>Use \\[previous-history-element] to retrieve previous history items,
+and \\[next-history-element] to retrieve default values.
 \(See info node `Minibuffer History'.)"
   (interactive
    (list
     (hi-lock-regexp-okay
-     (read-from-minibuffer "Regexp to highlight: "
-                           (cons (or (car hi-lock-regexp-history) "") 1 )
-                           nil nil 'hi-lock-regexp-history))
+     (keep-lines-read-args "Regexp to highlight: "))
     (hi-lock-read-face-name)))
   (or (facep face) (setq face 'hi-yellow))
   (unless hi-lock-mode (hi-lock-mode 1))
@@ -440,9 +438,7 @@
    (list
     (hi-lock-regexp-okay
      (hi-lock-process-phrase
-      (read-from-minibuffer "Phrase to highlight: "
-                            (cons (or (car hi-lock-regexp-history) "") 1 )
-                            nil nil 'hi-lock-regexp-history)))
+      (keep-lines-read-args "Phrase to highlight: ")))
     (hi-lock-read-face-name)))
   (or (facep face) (setq face 'hi-yellow))
   (unless hi-lock-mode (hi-lock-mode 1))
@@ -457,7 +453,8 @@
 Interactively, prompt for REGEXP.  Buffer-local history of inserted
 regexp's maintained.  Will accept only regexps inserted by hi-lock
 interactive functions.  \(See `hi-lock-interactive-patterns'.\)
-\\<minibuffer-local-must-match-map>Use \\[minibuffer-complete] to complete a partially typed regexp.
+\\<minibuffer-local-map>Use \\[previous-history-element] to retrieve previous history items,
+and \\[next-history-element] to retrieve default values.
 \(See info node `Minibuffer History'.\)"
   (interactive
    (if (and (display-popup-menus-p) (not last-nonmenu-event))
@@ -552,16 +549,18 @@
   (intern (completing-read
            "Highlight using face: "
            obarray 'facep t
-           (cons (car hi-lock-face-history)
+           (cons (car hi-lock-face-defaults)
                  (let ((prefix
                         (try-completion
-                         (substring (car hi-lock-face-history) 0 1)
+                         (substring (car hi-lock-face-defaults) 0 1)
                          (mapcar (lambda (f) (cons f f))
-                                 hi-lock-face-history))))
+                                 hi-lock-face-defaults))))
                    (if (and (stringp prefix)
-                            (not (equal prefix (car hi-lock-face-history))))
+                            (not (equal prefix (car hi-lock-face-defaults))))
                        (length prefix) 0)))
-           '(hi-lock-face-history . 0))))
+           nil
+           hi-lock-face-defaults
+	   )))
 
 (defun hi-lock-set-pattern (regexp face)
   "Highlight REGEXP with face FACE."

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/