Isearch should store aborted search strings too

Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Tom]

I often use isearch to check something in other parts of the
file and then go back to the starting point by aborting isearch
with ctrl+G.

When I abort it then isearch doesn't store the search string which
I often need again, so I have to type it again. I recommend
adding and option to control this behavior and store the search string 
even if aborting.

This could even be the default, since previous search strings can
be trivially accessed with M-p, so it's no problem if more
strings are stored than before.

Re: Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Andreas Schwab]

Tom <adatgyujto@gmail.com> writes:

> I often use isearch to check something in other parts of the
> file and then go back to the starting point by aborting isearch
> with ctrl+G.

Alternative: type RET and then C-u C-SPC.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Re: Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Tom]

Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> linux-m68k.org> writes:

> 
> Tom <adatgyujto <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I often use isearch to check something in other parts of the
> > file and then go back to the starting point by aborting isearch
> > with ctrl+G.
> 
> Alternative: type RET and then C-u C-SPC.
> 

Yes, but it's much more typing than a simple C-g which is not a good thing
in case of a frequent operation. I use isearch quite a lot to move around
in buffers.

As a workaround I added an advice which forces isearch to always store
the search string:

(defadvice isearch-done (before my-isearch-done activate)
  (ad-set-arg 0 nil))


With this anyone can try it how it feels in practice. I find it
quite convenient that I can quickly repeat an isearch with
C-s C-s regardless if I exited the search normally or aborted it.

Re: Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Juri Linkov]

> I often use isearch to check something in other parts of the
> file and then go back to the starting point by aborting isearch
> with ctrl+G.
>
> When I abort it then isearch doesn't store the search string which
> I often need again, so I have to type it again. I recommend
> adding and option to control this behavior and store the search string
> even if aborting.

Without an option this can be achieved with:

  (add-hook 'isearch-mode-end-hook
            (lambda ()
              (isearch-update-ring isearch-string isearch-regexp)))

> This could even be the default, since previous search strings can
> be trivially accessed with M-p, so it's no problem if more
> strings are stored than before.

Often previous useless search strings is a problem that I even use code
in .emacs in `isearch-mode-end-hook' that removes the search string
even on successful exit:

  ;; Don't push the search string into the search ring
  ;; (i.e. remove the stored search string)
  (if isearch-regexp
      (setq regexp-search-ring (cdr regexp-search-ring))
    (setq search-ring (cdr search-ring)))

Re: Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

I forget the exact details, but XEmacs stores some fraction (maybe
100%, as I say, I forget the details) of the successful portion of
aborted searches.  I miss this when I use Emacs.

On the other hand, it's really not good enough.  XEmacs doesn't permit
editing of the searched string once it's been recalled with C-s C-s,
and I find that such aborted strings often want variation for the next
such search, much more often than with search-and-stay-where-found
operations.  (If Emacs already permits editing of the recalled string,
then I would consider that a big improvement over our style, and give
a "big +1" to the proposed change.)

Re: Isearch should store aborted search strings too

[Stefan Monnier]

> I forget the exact details, but XEmacs stores some fraction (maybe
> 100%, as I say, I forget the details) of the successful portion of
> aborted searches.  I miss this when I use Emacs.

That's an interesting idea.  I think for my use case, both "store the
aborted search string" and "store the successful part of the aborted
search" would work fine and would be an improvement over the
current situation.

> On the other hand, it's really not good enough.  XEmacs doesn't permit
> editing of the searched string once it's been recalled with C-s C-s,

Emacs does not allow editing it via DEL (tho I use a local patch that
does), but it can still be edited via M-e.


        Stefan