[comp.emacs] GNU emacs: 'remembered' fields?

jsulliva@cvbnet.UUCP (Jeff Sullivan, x4096 MS 4-2) (03/15/90)

  Is there a way to set up GNU emacs to "remember" the last
  field(s) you typed? For example:
    search-forward string1
    query-replace  string1 with string2
  In the above case, if string1 were "remembered", I wouldn't
  have to type it in again. This is a nice feature that I have
  found in Freemacs (a GNU emacs work-alike for the PC).

  Thanks in advance,
  -Jeff

mdb@ESD.3Com.COM (Mark D. Baushke) (03/17/90)

On 15 Mar 90 15:01:04 GMT, jsulliva@cvbnet.UUCP (Jeff Sullivan) said:

Jeff>   Is there a way to set up GNU emacs to "remember" the last
Jeff>   field(s) you typed? For example:
Jeff>     search-forward string1
Jeff>     query-replace  string1 with string2
Jeff>   In the above case, if string1 were "remembered", I wouldn't
Jeff>   have to type it in again. This is a nice feature that I have
Jeff>   found in Freemacs (a GNU emacs work-alike for the PC).

Jeff>   Thanks in advance,
Jeff>   -Jeff

I believe you are looking for the function repeat-complex-command (by
default bound to 'C-x ESC').

Enjoy!
-- 
Mark D. Baushke
Internet:   mdb@ESD.3Com.COM
UUCP:	    {3comvax,auspex,sun}!bridge2!mdb

moss@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Eliot Moss) (03/19/90)

I note that an earlier reply, suggesting that one use a command replay
feature, does *not* do what was requested. Specifically, the request was
something like: if I just searched for some string s1 and would now like to
replace all s1's with s2, is there any way I can do this without having to
re-type s1 to the "replace" command? I think the request is for a feature not
present in GNU Emacs and which would in fact be quite convenient. I can think
of two sets of functionality of interest:

1) Keep track of the last value of typed interactive arguments. Even better,
keep track of the last value of the first, second, third, etc., argument
independently, and when in the nth field give an easy way to insert the last
value of the nth argument in the previous command that had n or more
arguments.

2) Possibly even more appealing would be to keep a "history" of typed
arguments, with a user-controllable number of entries, and simple commands to
go through that history (similar to the emacs style command line recall
facility of ksh and (I believe) bash).

I'm not up for implementing it myself, and one problem is that this requires
global changes, or ones fairly deep in the system, but it would be useful ...
--

		J. Eliot B. Moss, Assistant Professor
		Department of Computer and Information Science
		Lederle Graduate Research Center
		University of Massachusetts
		Amherst, MA  01003
		(413) 545-4206; Moss@cs.umass.edu