From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Reopen bug 535: Problem with highlit regions on Linux virtual terminal Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:26:13 +0900 Message-ID: <87r603h4y2.fsf@xemacs.org> References: <20090405230524.GB6124@muc.de> <20090406090321.GA1645@muc.de> <20090407205509.GA3452@muc.de> <87y6ubhfmz.fsf@xemacs.org> <20090408081342.GA1066@muc.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1239182494 28881 80.91.229.12 (8 Apr 2009 09:21:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 09:21:34 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org, Miles Bader To: Alan Mackenzie Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Apr 08 11:22:53 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1LrTzZ-0008Gq-FZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:22:45 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:51241 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LrTyA-0000gP-Qi for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:18 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LrTy5-0000fF-7p for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:13 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LrTy0-0000ZC-7Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:12 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=52461 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LrTxz-0000Yu-FA for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:07 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:59254) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LrTxu-0005rc-HV; Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:03 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id C20AD1537B7; Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:20:50 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 4726A1A331D; Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:26:13 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: <20090408081342.GA1066@muc.de> X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12-devo-585 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" 83e35df20028+ XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:110147 Archived-At: Alan Mackenzie writes: > This is a misuse of the word "active", Any dictionary will quickly show that this usage of "active" is well-known. From dictionary.reference.com: 2. being in a state of existence, progress, or motion: active hostilities. 5. characterized by action, motion, volume, use, participation, etc.: an active market in wheat; an active list of subscribers. reference.com doesn't mention it, but biology and biochemistry have a very similar usage, viz. "active receptors", "active sites". > "Active" is the wrong word. Possibly "Reactive" would be a > suitable one - a "reactive region" being one which reacts to > commands directed at it. I don't think that's as good a term as "active". The region is not an object with methods it uses to "react" to commands. It is an object to which things may be done, unless it is inactive. "Receptive region" might be more accurate, but unfortunately there is no verb "to receptivate". I think documenters would mutiny if they had to write "to activate the receptivity of the region". > Do you have definitions of (as contrasted to a discussion around) > "active region" and "active mark" that you could contribute to the > Emacs manual? Not really. As you say, transient-mark-mode is complex. And we've been through this discussion before, IIRC, and the XEmacs terminology was considered inappropriate for Emacs. To recap, XEmacs does not have a concept of "active mark" (or if that term is used, I guess it is identical to "the mark", ie, the mark on the top of the mark stack). It does have two concepts of active region, the more often used of which is `region-exists-p' (for compatibility with code written for Emacs): Return t if the region exists. If active regions are in use (i.e. `zmacs-regions' is true), this means that the region is active. Otherwise, this means that the user has pushed a mark in this buffer at some point in the past. the other being `region-active-p': (defun region-active-p () (and zmacs-regions (region-exists-p))) where zmacs-regions is the XEmacs equivalent to transient-mark-mode.