Feature: Customizable buttons in zk-desktop, fix for overlay bug #76
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Provides more feedback to the user if they call `zk-desktop-make-buttons` directly and from the wrong buffer.
Preserves horizontal space by eliminating one level of indentation.
Makes `zk-desktop-make-buttons` less imposing and self-documents.
The function is easier to read and with fewer searches and replacements, there is less potential for errors to crop up.
This makes the code more modular and easier to maintain.
The name, along with the updated docstring, clarifies what this actually means.
This clarifies what are the actual bounds for the button being made.
There were two issue:
1. With `zk-desktop-invisible-ids` set to T, we make the IDs invisible with text
properties and overlays; setting `..-invisible-ids` to NIL and re-doing
`zk-desktop-make-buttons` not only does not reveal invisible IDs, but makes
the titles invisible too.
2. The overlay " <- ID NOT FOUND" stays in the buffer, so that repeated calls to
`zk-desktop-make-buttons` results in more and more of these overlays being
added to each line with a missing ID.
Working to make `zk-desktop-send-to-desktop` more modular and simpler to maintain.
Despite `completing-read`'s docstring, this is a good case where INITIAL-INPUT ought to be used, since zk-desktop-basename is by no means a default value; it's just the beginning of any desktop file name.
Either `zk-desktop-current` is already a live buffer or `zk-desktop-select` creates one, there should be no case where we'd need to `generate-new-buffer`. Especially since it expects a name of a new buffer rather than whatever `buffer` variable ends up being.
Adding the 'type property to overlays makes it possible to later selectively remove "our" overlays, which is what `zk-desktop--clear' does.
While `zk-desktop-prefix` is a static value, being able to pass a string for every item sent to the desktop allows for things like time-stamps or even brief comments.
This allows the user an option to treat Zk-Desktop file as a regular text file (in other words, without buttons, read-only text properties, or overlays). Someone who uses org-mode could, for example, just set it up that the Zk-Desktop files are annotated org-mode documents, with each item as a heading or a list item by setting `zk-desktop-prefix` to `"** "` or `"- "`, respectively.
This is primarily useful for `zk-desktop--gather-items`, but might come in handy elsewhere too.
This requires extending `zk-index--current-id-list` to return IDs within the active region, but makes it possible to produce consistently-formatted Zk-Desktop file rather than relying on the customizable format of Zk-Index.
Renaming these to `zk-desktop-entry-prefix` and `zk-desktop-entry-format` distinguishes them from actual Emacs buttons that may or may not be created according to `zk-desktop-make-buttons`.
The suffix argument to `zk-desktop-send-to-desktop` allows adding arbitrary text, such as the current time, for example, to each individual entry. In the future, the `-suffix` and `-prefix` variables can accept functions as well as strings to make that easier.
This allows customizing how missing IDs are handled.
Previously, `zk-desktop--make-button` relied on match-data from `zk-desktop-make-buttons`, which meant that it couldn't be called from other functions. While rewriting, also made a series of improvements: - `zk-desktop-make-buttons` only gathers list of IDs if `zk-desktop-mark-missing` is non-nil. - When zk-desktop-mark-missing is non-nil, but not a string, set the button face to `zk-desktop-missing-button`. - Add `button-data` text button property that contains the ID and TITLE for the zk-desktop entry.
If the desktop file is long, this is quite a significant performance boost for each call to `zk-desktop-send-to-desktop`.
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Wow, thanks for this! I'll try to give it a look soon. |
| (concat | ||
| zk-desktop-basename | ||
| ".*")) | ||
| nil nil zk-desktop-basename nil)) |
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From the doc-string for completing-read, regarding use of INITIAL-INPUT:
"This feature is deprecated--it is best to pass nil
for INITIAL-INPUT and supply the default value DEF instead. The
user can yank the default value into the minibuffer easily using
M-n."
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Yeah, I realize that about completing-read, but sometimes it just doesn't make sense. zk-desktop-basename is not the default value; it is a common portion of zk-desktop names that the user then adds to. INITIAL-INPUT seems like the most natural place to put that in, though perhaps we could add something to the prompt text instead? Like "Select or Create ZK-Desktop (following [value of zk-desktop-basename]): but less awkward...
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Some notes after a quick test:
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This started as a frustration with the persistent
<-- ID NOT FOUNDoverlays which kept increasing after each new desktop entry, so I'd end up with lines of<-- ID NOT FOUND <-- ID NOT FOUND <-- ID NOT FOUND <-- .... One thing led to another, and the result is I believe a more customizable and flexible Zk-Desktop.Main improvements:
zk-desktop-entry-format,zk-desktop-entry-prefix, andzk-desktop-entry-suffixzk-desktop-entry-*variables rather than just copying the zk-index regionzk-desktop--make-buttonmakes for much fasterzk-desktop-send-to-desktopI am including the entire commit history that you can see the incremental changes, but many/all can be squashed. I know you don't have time to review new features, I'm just parking this here if that changes at any point. Given the scale of the changes to
zk-desktop.el, though, I'd appreciate some acknowledgment in the file.