From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Loris Bennett" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: You learn something every day... Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:17:45 +0200 Organization: Freie Universitaet Berlin Message-ID: <87sh7zr5o6.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1523600313 26640 195.159.176.226 (13 Apr 2018 06:18:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2018 06:18:33 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.1 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 13 08:18:28 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1f6s2W-0006m2-Cv for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:18:28 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53735 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1f6s4c-0006yW-TD for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 13 Apr 2018 02:20:38 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 60 Original-X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de enO9NtFkgPFqKyW8OiXXbw8YeBINguARiqeCPQNgGBs6w4 Cancel-Lock: sha1:dpGZrdcAN2W/pI/QVOdJOqCQjas= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:222386 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:116504 Archived-At: Skip Montanaro writes: > I've been using some version of Emacs since 1981, when I installed > Gosling Emacs from a DECUS tape on VMS. (I had gotten used to a "full > screen" editor on the PR1ME computers we used at school, and > complained about what was effectively an ed(1)-style editor on VMS. > Not sure EDT was available yet.) So though I long ago stopped messing > with Emacs at the Lisp level other than to define some keys in my init > file, I have used many versions of Emacs, plumbed the depths of its > user interface and have tried any number of packages. > > Still, there is always something new under the sun. Today I learned > about M-n and M-p in the minibuffer. I pass this along in case there > are any other Emacs users as apparently oblivious as I've been all > these years. > > For the past couple days, I have been monitoring the logfile from an > uncooperative server process using occur to match and highlight > interesting bits. A simple keyboard macro looks like this: > > * revisit the log file > * return to the top > * execute occur, accepting the default pattern > * scroll the *Occur* buffer to the end > * return point to the log file > > This all goes swimmingly, unless I need to tweak the pattern or use > occur for some other task. The pattern grows and shrinks over time, > but basically looks like this: > > subpat1 \| subpat2 \| ... \| subpatN > > where N is generally five or less and the various subpatterns aren't > too complex, often just simple strings. > > It was getting to be a royal PITA to have to retype the pattern from > scratch any time I wanted to alter it. As I went looking for how to > load the last regular expression into the minibuffer to edit it, I > stumbled on the Minibuf menu and its M-n and M-p bindings. I almost > *never* use the graphical menu (remember how long I've been using > Emacs, old habits die hard - I used to suppress it altogether as a > waste of screen space). I don't know what possessed me to glance at > the menu bar at just the right time, but that glance saved me a trip > down a deep, dark rabbit hole. > > M-p-is-your-friend-ly, y'rs, I probably first came across the bindings in shell-like buffers when I was trying to access the history and realised that the arrows keys weren't the way to go ... However, being a relative newbie, having only used Emacs since the late '80s, I have never come across the "Minibuf menu". What's that? Cheers, Loris -- This signature is currently under construction.