On Sat, Jan 15, 2011 at 9:23 PM, LanX <lanx.perl@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Can anybody shed any light on this, or point me in a better direction?

I had to solve this recently -- keeping the region active after a command
modifies the buffer.  The relevant documentation is here:
http://www.gnu.org/s/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/The-Mark.html


Variable: *deactivate-mark*

If an editor command sets this variable non-nil, then the editor command
loop deactivates the mark after the command returns (if Transient Mark mode
is enabled). *All the primitives that change the buffer set deactivate-mark*,
to deactivate the mark when the command is finished.

To write Lisp code that modifies the buffer without causing deactivation of
the mark at the end of the command, bind deactivate-mark to nil around the
code that does the modification. For example:

          (let (deactivate-mark)

            (insert " "))



-- 
Le