[ESS] GNU Emacs, ESS and point

Sparapani, Rodney rsparapa at mcw.edu
Wed Mar 5 19:04:19 CET 2014


I am resurrecting this old thread since I still see the same behavior in
Emacs 24.3.  But, I am only going to focus on the first bug/feature.

On Wed, 2014-03-05 at 17:53 +0000, Sparapani, Rodney wrote:
>   >> Rodney Sparapani <rsparapa <at> mcw.edu>
>   >> on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:26:27 -0500 wrote:
> 
>   > On 03/05/2012 01:12 PM, Rodney Sparapani wrote:
>   >> 
>   >> Ok, here is something that I don't understand. When you have
>   >> a file opened in different frames, GNU Emacs doesn't remember
>   >> point. I can see how this sort of makes sense (although, XEmacs
>   >> somehow does it better; I'm not sure where this setting is). Someone
>   >> must have dealt with this smartly on the GNU side, right? If you have
>   >> a big file open (and a big file benefits the most from this
>   >> multiple view scenario so this is pretty common), is there
>   >> any way to smartly manage point? This type of point management
>   >> is sort of what we have created in ess-revert-wisely. But,
>   >> what if you don't want to revert? Thanks
>   >> 

> If I understand correctly what you want is a separate point is different buffers
> of the same file, right? Then this is what you are after:
> 
> M-x make-indirect-buffer RET
> 
> >From the (elisp)Indirect Buffers:
> 
>    
>    An "indirect buffer" shares the text of some other buffer, which is
>    called the "base buffer" of the indirect buffer.  In some ways it is
>    the analogue, for buffers, of a symbolic link among files.  The base
>    buffer may not itself be an indirect buffer.
> 
>       The text of the indirect buffer is always identical to the text of
>    its base buffer; changes made by editing either one are visible
>    immediately in the other.  This includes the text properties as well as
>    the characters themselves.
> 
>       In all other respects, the indirect buffer and its base buffer are
>    completely separate.  They have different names, independent values of
>    point, independent narrowing, independent markers and overlays (though
>    inserting or deleting text in either buffer relocates the markers and
>    overlays for both), independent major modes, and independent
>    buffer-local variable bindings.
> 
> Best,
> Vitalie.
> 

Hi Vitalie:

I see what you mean.  For example, it would make no sense if I split a
buffer with C-x 2 or 3 and insisted on the point being the same.  But,
I am not talking about a split buffer.  I'm talking about situations
where you just happen to have the same .sas, .log or .lst file open in
two different buffers that have not been split/ediff-ed/whatever
usually on two different frames (maybe multiple frames is the
important detail).  Then I do want the same point always.  Now, I can
see this might not be the easiest thing to implement since the
splitting/ediffing/etc. may need to be "remembered" or the framing needs
to be kept track of.  However, XEmacs seems to do it smartly.  Any ideas?

Thanks,

Rodney



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