RE: yank-secondary

[Drew Adams]

Dunno if anyone tried the code I sent, but I've since combined the three
commands in one, `yank-secondary-or-swap-w-region': 

* no prefix arg:    yank-secondary
* prefix arg >= 0:  primary-to-secondary
* prefix arg < 0:   secondary-to-primary

I also fixed a minor bug in `primary-to-secondary'.
The code is here, for those who are interested:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/misc-cmds.el

--------
> From: Drew Adams Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 4:15 PM
> Resending (see below). There was some interest, but not a 
> deluge of response. This is an update, with some new commands.
> 
> David D.L.H.G mentioned that there is no way to create the 
> secondary selection by keyboard, and that he typically is
> already using the mouse when he wants to yank the secondary
> selection.
> 
> That's not my experience. I often yank the secondary 
> selection long after I've created it. In fact, I typically
> use the same secondary selection over a period
> of editing, whereas I change the primary (region) selection 
> often. That's the beauty of the secondary selection, to me:
> it persists even when the region changes. You can use
> registers in a similar way, but I find the secondary
> selection handy for this.
> 
> But what about having a way to create the secondary
> selection by keyboard? Good idea. I don't think it's
> helpful or necessary to duplicate the many ways that
> one can define the region, just to do the same for the 
> secondary selection. You don't need 36 ways to define that.
> 
> But it would be useful to be able to create the secondary 
> selection from the region. That then gives you all of the
> many region creation methods for free.
> 
> I now bind not `yank-secondary' (which I sent previously)
> but a command that does the same thing but also lets you
> use `C-u' to instead create the secondary selection from
> the region. I bind it to `C-M-y'.
> 
> (defun yank-secondary-or-convert-primary (arg)
>   "Insert the secondary selection at point.
> Move point to the end of the inserted text.  Does not change mark.
> With a prefix arg, make the region into the secondary selection,
> instead."
>   (interactive "P")
>   (if arg
>       (call-interactively #'primary-to-secondary)
>     (setq this-command 'yank-secondary)
>     (when delete-selection-mode   ; Hack!
>       (delete-selection-pre-hook))
>     (call-interactively #'yank-secondary)))
> 
> (defun primary-to-secondary (beg end)
>   "Make the region in the current buffer into the secondary 
> selection."
>   (interactive "r")
>   (setq mouse-secondary-start (make-marker))
>   (set-marker mouse-secondary-start beg)
>   (if mouse-secondary-overlay
>       (move-overlay mouse-secondary-overlay beg end)
>     (setq mouse-secondary-overlay (make-overlay beg end))
>     (overlay-put mouse-secondary-overlay
>       'face 'secondary-selection))
>   (x-set-selection 'SECONDARY (buffer-substring beg end)))
> 
> IOW, I use `C-M-y' to yank the secondary and `C-u C-M-y' to 
> copy the region text to the secondary (it still leaves the
> region active). That's the right way to
> create the secondary from the keyboard, I think.
> 
> There was also some question of how yanking should interact with
> delete-selection mode. I now let it delete the region text, 
> and I find that that is quite useful. IOW, `C-M-y' with an
> active region replaces the region text
> with the secondary selection. 
> 
> Among other things, that provides a handy way to replace text 
> here and there, without monkeying with the kill-ring order
> (`M-y'). I also use it sometimes with isearch the same way,
> as a way to replace particular search hits on the fly.
> (`C-SPC' in my version of isearch-map is a toggle that sets 
> the region around the search hit when you exit isearch, which
> is handy here.)
> 
> The hack in the `yank-secondary-or-convert-primary' code 
> shows how I make delete-selection mode DTRT. I didn't find a
> better way, since delete-selection mode looks only at the
> current key's command. Suggestions welcome.
> 
> FWIW, I also have a command, `secondary-to-primary', to pop 
> to the buffer of the secondary selection and select it as
> the region. It's sort of the opposite of
> `primary-to-secondary'. I have not bound it to a key.
> 
> (defun secondary-to-primary ()
>   "Converts the secondary selection into the active region.
> Selects the secondary selection and its buffer in another window."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((secondary (x-get-selection 'SECONDARY)))
>     (unless (and secondary mouse-secondary-overlay)
>       (error "No secondary selection"))
>     (x-set-selection 'PRIMARY secondary))
>   (switch-to-buffer-other-window
>     (overlay-buffer mouse-secondary-overlay))
>   (push-mark (overlay-start mouse-secondary-overlay) t t)
>   (goto-char (overlay-end mouse-secondary-overlay))
>   (setq deactivate-mark nil))
> 
> You might give `yank-secondary-or-convert-primary' a try, to 
> see if it's something that Emacs might benefit from.
> 
> Here again is `yank-secondary' (used by 
> `yank-secondary-or-convert-primary'):
> 
> (defun yank-secondary ()
>   "Insert the secondary selection at point.
> Moves point to the end of the inserted text.  Does not change mark."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((secondary (x-get-selection 'SECONDARY)))
>     (unless secondary (error "No secondary selection"))
>     (insert secondary)))
> 
> -------------8<--------------------
> > From: Drew Adams Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:59 AM
> > Resending. Questions:
> >  
> > 1) Any interest? 
> > 2) Do you yank the secondary selection (without the mouse)? 
> > If so, how?
> > 
> > -------------
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:41 PM
> > Any interest in adding something like this? I've used it for 
> > years. Hard to
> > believe it isn't already in Emacs (or is it?). (What do those 
> > of you who are sans souris use?)
> > 
> > (defun yank-secondary ()
> >   "Insert the secondary selection at point.
> > Moves point to the end of the inserted text.  Does not change mark."
> >   (interactive)
> >   (let ((secondary (x-get-selection 'SECONDARY)))
> >     (unless secondary (error "No secondary selection"))
> >     (insert secondary)))
> > 
> > I bind it to `C-M-y', so I can access two different 
> > selections from the keyboard.
> > 
> > (FWIW, I also bind the meta mouse stuff to `C-M-', so 
> > mouse-yank-secondary and yank-secondary use the same
> > modifiers. I've done that since I had an SGI workstation
> > that wouldn't pass ALT-mouse stuff to Emacs. So, e.g., I
> > have `C-M-y' = yank-secondary, `C-M-mouse2' = 
> > mouse-yank-secondary, `C-M-mouse-1'
> > = mouse-start-secondary, `C-M-mouse-3' = 
> > mouse-secondary-save-then-kill,
> > `C-M-drag-mouse-1' = mouse-set-secondary, and
> > `C-M-down-mouse-1' = mouse-drag-secondary.)