Re: Why save-excursion doesn't restore cursor position after 3 kill-line calls?

[tyler <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca>]

Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> In article 
> <429c5cab-0015-4eb6-a794-ce990c6255d6@q26g2000prq.googlegroups.com>,
>  "seberino@spawar.navy.mil" <seberino@spawar.navy.mil> wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to map C-d to a function that deletes an entire line and
>> stops on the *SAME* column number of the following line....
>> 
>> (global-set-key "\^d" (lambda () (interactive) (save-excursion (kill-
>> line)
>>  
>> (kill-line 0)
>>  
>> (kill-line))))
>> 
>> Why doesn't save-excursion preserve the column number after these kill-
>> line invocations?
>> 
>> chris
>
> save-excursion restores the location in the buffer, not the row and 
> column positions.  If the text around the location is deleted, it finds 
> the closest remaining location.

I don't understand. The documentation for save-excursion says:

"Save point, mark, and current buffer; execute body; restore those things."

I tried Chris' code, first calling (point), then running the command,
then running (point) again, and the value has definitely not been
restored. It is possible, for example:

(defun mykill () 
  (interactive) 
  (let ((p (point)))
    (kill-line)
    (kill-line 0)
    (kill-line)
    (goto-char p)))

I've been confused by save-excursion in other contexts though, so I'm
still unclear on why the original version of this function doesn't work.

Cheers,

Tyler

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