Add bookmark and possibly register actions

[minad]

@oantolin I can add those if you like.

[oantolin]

Thanks for the bookmark actions!

[oantolin]

Do the register actions really make sense? I don't think there are built-in commands that prompt with completing-read for a register. They all use register-read-with-preview, which only requires you to type one character. That means there is no chance to run an action, there is no moment before pressing RET when you have specified a register but haven't finished the command you started,

[minad]

Yes, there is the register menu in consult though, but it does not make sense to add actions for them here.

[oantolin]

Yes, there is the register menu in consult though, but it does not make sense to add actions for them here.

Well, hold on a second. Why not add them here? They won't bother people who don't use consult, and might be useful for consult users. I do not oppose adding stuff that benefits consult users as long as it does not involve making consult a dependency. I already have default list view for the line and kill-ring categories that consult introduces.

[oantolin]

But the thing with registers is that other that inserting them or jumping to them, I can't really think of relevant actions, and the consult-register command combines both of those into one command already.

[minad]

But the things with registers is that other that inserting them or jumping to them, I can't really think of relevant actions, and the consult-register command combines both of those into one command already.

This is exactly what I thought when I pressed close ;) But there is also increment-register and maybe there are more useful ones which make sense in the action menu of consult-register...

[oantolin]

To be honest, I don't use consult-register, because it's a lot more typing than the built-in register commands, and from a quick glance didn't seem to offer any advantages. What am I missing?

[minad]

It is nothing more than a reminder of what register values you have stored, but I am also not using it much. You can always use the register list though. There has been some recent discussion in minad/consult#6 if there is a possibility to make it more useful

[oantolin]

But the built-in commands also remind you of what you have stored, that's what register-read-with-preview does.

[minad]

@oantolin That's right. But in that case the order of selection action is reversed. As I said, consult-register is of questionable usefulness. Maybe I should kick it out of consult again. But still it might be neat to have a consult view of registers and bookmarks and other similar things.

[minad]

At least I am pretty sure we should not add actions in Embark for registers as of now. If something comes up we can still reconsider?

[oantolin]

But in that case the order of selection action is reversed.

Ah, gotcha! Yes. I wasn't noticing this because I don't actually use either insert-register or jump-to-register, instead I use this command I wrote, which is basically the same as consult-register but using the special register-read-with-preview instead of completing-read:

(defun use-register-dwim (register &optional arg)
  "Do what I mean with a register.
For a window configuration, restore it. For a number or text, insert it.
For a location, jump to it."
  (interactive
   (list (register-read-with-preview "Use register: ")
         current-prefix-arg))
  (condition-case nil
      (jump-to-register register arg)
    (user-error (insert-register register arg))))

So I sort of forgot that with the built-in command you need to know whether you want to insert or jump before you select your command.

At least I am pretty sure we should not add actions in Embark for registers as of now.

OK, yes, seems better not to yet.

If something comes up we can still reconsider?

Always!

[minad]

Cool command! I should scan your config for ideas more carefully at some point ;) So let's close this!

[oantolin]

That's my command to use registers, I also have one to store stuff in them, which is more ad hoc, but I've gotten used to it:

(defun store-register-dwim (arg register)
  "Store what I mean in a register.
With an active region, store or append (with \\[universal-argument]) the
contents, optionally deleting the region (with a negative
argument). With a numeric prefix, store the number. With \\[universal-argument]
store the frame configuration. Otherwise, store the point."
  (interactive
   (list current-prefix-arg
         (register-read-with-preview "Store in register: ")))
  (cond
   ((use-region-p)
    (let ((begin (region-beginning))
          (end (region-end))
          (delete-flag (or (equal arg '-)  (equal arg '(-4)))))
      (if (consp arg)
          (append-to-register register begin end delete-flag)
        (copy-to-register register begin end delete-flag t))))
   ((numberp arg) (number-to-register arg register))
   (t (point-to-register register arg))))

[minad]

Nice :)

[minad]

Now I have to think if I can somehow adopt this for consult. Or maybe I only add something like this to my config...

[oantolin]

I love deleting stuff from my personal config, so I'd enjoy it if something like this made it into consult. I've already deleted functions that correspond to consult-line, consult-yank-replace and consult-completion-in-region, which made me very happy (I know maybe the last one shouldn't count since I contributed it).

I don't think there is anything wrong with saying, "normally commands in consult use completing-read for their UI, but in the case of registers the built-in function register-read-with-preview is even better than completing-read"...

[minad]

I also love to remove stuff from the init.el :)
I will try these commands and see if it may make sense to add them to consult instead of or additional to consult-register.

[hmelman]

But there is also increment-register and maybe there are more useful ones which make sense in the action menu of consult-register...

I'm not certain they apply here but there are append-to-register and prepend-to-register commands that might be useful.

[oantolin]

Those would be good actions, @hmelman! The issue with register actions though, is that no built-in commands prompt you for a register with completing-read, they all use register-read-with-preview. There is no opportunity for the user to trigger actions since with register-read-with-preview you only type one letter to pick a register. (If instead it were one letter and RET to confirm, in between the letter and RET you could trigger actions.) Adding actions for registers would be solely for consult-register, which is a command I don't really believe in, since I think register-read-with-preview is better than completing-read for prompting for registers.

[minad]

@oantolin I am not 100% convinced by register-read-with-preview tbh, but consult-register is also not good. Still having this in the backlog minad/consult#77...

[oantolin]

Oh, I'm not saying register-read-with-preview is the best UI for this, just that it is better than completing-read. But I do think my ideal UI would be pretty close to register-read-with-preview. Maybe just change the preview of positions to be more like consult-mark, keeping the preview for numbers, text, window configurations, etc. the same.

Although it might be nice to have a chance to trigger actions...

[minad]

Maybe just change the preview of positions to be more like consult-mark, keeping the preview for numbers, text, window configurations, etc. the same.

This is exactly what I have been thinking.

[oantolin]

Also register-read-with-preview pops up the preview in a separate buffer. As an embark-live-occur-after-input user, I'm fine with this, but maybe Selectrum and Icomplete users would prefer the preview in the minibuffer.

[minad]

Also register-read-with-preview pops up the preview in a separate buffer. As an embark-live-occur-after-input user, I'm fine with this, but maybe Selectrum and Icomplete users would prefer the preview in the minibuffer.

Obviously ;) But I feel stronger about the not-so-informative preview etc. And I think other users mentioned that too in minad/consult#6 also in relation to consult-register, which uses the same non-informative text for the candidates.

[hmelman]

I don't use registers much, I don't think many emacs users do. I understand the UI limitations of register-read-with-preview and consult-register and I think I prefer the consult-register treatment. I don't like the list-register buffer.

I'd really rather see a cleaner consult/marginalia one line/register display of this info. The first (narrow) column would be the register name. A column like the describe commands do with a letter indicating the type of the register (location, text, window, number, etc.) and then the value with a longer text snippet or other value. This would probably require new register-val-describe implementations and a replacement of register-read-with-preview and that's probably all too much work for an infrequently used features like registers, but that would be my ideal.

FWIW, evil-mode supports vim markers which are very much like emacs registers and I think more central to the evil experience than registers are to the emacs experience. I think they just support locations and text. I don't think evil has a good display of the markers and as such counsel-evil-markers is pretty popular. A consult-registers could probably be adapted to a consult-evil-markers though I don't think it supports more actions then save and insert/jump. I'm not an evil user so I don't know more.