Re: How do I highlight word at point?

[Nikolaj Schumacher <me@nschum.de>]

Xah <xahlee@gmail.com> wrote:

> (defun select-word ()
> "Select a word under cursor.
> “word” here is considered any alphenumeric sequence with “_” or “-”."
>  (interactive)
>  (let (b1 b2)
>    (skip-chars-backward "-_A-Za-z0-9")
>    (setq b1 (point))
>    (skip-chars-forward "-_A-Za-z0-9")
>    (setq b2 (point))
>    (set-mark b1)
>    )
>  )

Why not use syntactic tables to determine what a word is?  That way it
would work for non-English languages and use less code.

(defun mark-current-word ()
  "Place the region around the word at point."
  (interactive)
  (forward-word 1)
  (mark-word -1))


I think I'll also use this (replacing M-@).  But it should still be able
to grow the region... Let's see:

(defun mark-current-word (arg &optional incremental)
  "Place the region around the word at point.
ARG determines how many following words to include.  When INCREMENTAL is
non-nil, extend the existing region."
  (interactive (list (prefix-numeric-value current-prefix-arg)
                     (or (and transient-mark-mode mark-active)
                         (eq last-command this-command))))
  (and incremental
       (> (* (signum arg) (- (mark) (point))) 0)
       (exchange-point-and-mark))
  (forward-word arg)
  (unless incremental
    (mark-word (- arg))))

(global-set-key "\M-@" 'mark-current-word)

(improvements welcome)


regards,
Nikolaj Schumacher