Subject: Re: bug#34014: 25.2; binding down mouse event with modifier to mouse-drag-region does not work

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2020 10:10:49 -0700

Adolf Mathias <[email-masked]> writes:

> No, it doesn't. With emacs -Q, mouse-1 then mouse-3 does the same as
> simply dragging out a region. Clicking mouse-3 at the same spot, the
> region gets killed, otherwise readjusted.
> With (setq mouse-drag-copy-region t), the region also gets copied to
> the kill ring, otherwise it just disappears.
>
> Assume the text cursor is at position A. I want the region from B to C
> copied to the text cursor position, and then continue editing right
> behind the copied text.
>
> 1. Workflow with mouse-stay-and-copy bound to S-mouse-1:
> press S-mouse-1 at B, release mouse-1 at C.
>
> 2. Workflow with mouse-copy-then-kill and (setq mouse-drag-copy-region t):
> click mouse-1 at B, click mouse-3 at C, click mouse-1 at A, hit Ctrl-Y.
>
> 3. Workflow with standard dragged region:
> drag out region from B to C. Hit Ctrl-W. Click mouse-1 at A. Hit Ctrl-Y.
>
> Workflow 1 saves me one or two mouse clicks and a keystroke and the
> navigation back to A. It is that navigation back to A that bothers me
> most - the dexterity issue, you know.

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

Perhaps the easiest would be to expand `mouse-drag-copy-region' et al.
to optionally support the behavior you are describing?  I'm sure we
would consider a patch to Emacs along those lines.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas