Perry Wagle <wagle@mac.com> writes:

> I have a number of tools (like proof general) that I need to use, so I
> really need to switch from years of xemacs to emacs.
>
> But.
>
> Using isearch on highlighted regions of text is way too clumsy in
> emacs.
>
>
> In xemacs, if I double-mouse-1 over some words with my right hand on
> the mouse, and press control s with my left hand, then I can press
> middle mouse with my right hand, which is still on the mouse, to paste
> into the minibuffer.
>
> In emacs, if I do the same, the isearch in the minibuffer IS ABORTED
> and the highlighted region is pasted wherever the mouse happens to be
> now.

So you want to search the word at point, right?  Try C-s C-w.  If you
need more, just press C-w more.

> In emacs, ESC y is wrong because it takes too long, requires both
> hands for me to do accurately, and requires I take my right hand off
> the mouse, and return it.
>
> In emacs, moving the mouse cursor into the minibuffer and then
> mouse-2'ing is wrong because it takes too long and is too hard to do
> rapidly.
>
> In this situation, all keyboard events are already going to the
> minibuffer.  Having an option for people like me to have it also trap
> mouse buttons seems like a good thing, especially with gesture mice
> making the one-button mouse metaphor even more completely obsolete.
> It IS aborting the isearch, so purity arguments don't hold here.  This
> is a human factors issue, and emacs is losing.
>
> I've tried a couple times to have this conversation, and most people
> say "don't use the mouse".  Well, if the mouse is treated by emacs
> (and not xemacs, for example), its no wonder that emacs people don't
> use the mouse.  Its been rendered useless.
>
> I want to make my mouse useful.  I use it a lot.  And I use the above
> idiom a lot.

I suggest throwing away your mouse.

Some hints: Use isearch extensively.  Jump to somewhere with C-s (or
C-r), and after you finished your edits there, jump back with C-u C-SPC
--- you may press it more if it failed.

>
> Apparently, I'm going to have to do this myself, unless someone else
> sees my light this time.  What's the best way to do it?  I have the
> feeling I'm fighting the foundations of emacs to try to funnel mouse
> button events into the minibuffer.
>
> Thanks for whatever help, hints, and guidance you can give me!
>
> -- Perry
>
>
>

-- 
Carl Lei (XeCycle)
Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
OpenPGP public key: 7795E591
Fingerprint: 1FB6 7F1F D45D F681 C845 27F7 8D71 8EC4 7795 E591