canonical way to go beginning of a link

canonical way to go beginning of a link

[John Kitchin]

Is there a canonical way to jump to the beginning of a link in org-mode,
i.e. the first char?

I usually do something this like:

(goto-char (org-element-property :begin (org-element-context)))

but in things like font-lock it seems slow compared to a regexp. I have
not found a reliable regexp approach though. say I want to search back
for "cite:" with point at the ^ position below:

some text cite:a-key
            ^

If I run (re-search-backward "cite:") at the point above, it does not go
to the point 2 characters back.

Any ideas?

-- 
Professor John Kitchin
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803
@johnkitchin
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu

Re: canonical way to go beginning of a link

[Haustedt, Jens]

> but in things like font-lock it seems slow compared to a
> regexp. I have not found a reliable regexp approach though. say
> I want to search back for "cite:" with point at the ^ position
> below:

> some text cite:a-key
>             ^

> If I run (re-search-backward "cite:") at the point above, it does not go to the point 2 characters back.

> Any ideas?

Given this setting:

some more text cite:a-key some text cite:a-key
                                      ^
When you run (re-search-backward "cite:") at the point above, the result is as follows:

some more text cite:a-key some text cite:a-key
               ^

This is exactly what I expected it to act.  In your example
above, the whole search pattern could not be found in ist entirety from
the indicated point on, so it could not be found at all and point
is not moved.

Maybe it is a good idea to move point forward for at least count
of chars in search pattern before the search executes?

Greets, Jens Haustedt

Re: canonical way to go beginning of a link

[John Kitchin]

Haustedt, Jens writes:

> Given this setting:
>
> some more text cite:a-key some text cite:a-key
>                                       ^
> When you run (re-search-backward "cite:") at the point above, the result is as follows:
>
> some more text cite:a-key some text cite:a-key
>                ^
>
> This is exactly what I expected it to act.  In your example
> above, the whole search pattern could not be found in ist entirety from
> the indicated point on, so it could not be found at all and point
> is not moved.

That is what I expect too, just not what I want ;)
>
> Maybe it is a good idea to move point forward for at least count
> of chars in search pattern before the search executes?

This is a great idea, thanks! 

>
> Greets, Jens Haustedt


-- 
Professor John Kitchin
Doherty Hall A207F
Department of Chemical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-7803
@johnkitchin
http://kitchingroup.cheme.cmu.edu