GNU bug report logs - #6823
24.0.50; Wdired or Dired enhancement

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From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: "'Eli Zaretskii'" <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 6823 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#6823: 24.0.50; Wdired or Dired enhancement
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 07:02:30 -0700

> > Emacs sorely needs one or more commands that let you rename the
> > marked files as a sequence (following a pattern).
> 
> Doesn't the "% R" command in Dired use query-replace under the hood?
> If so, doesn't it already allow to include Lisp expressions in the
> replacement that are eval'ed?

That kind of thing is what I had in mind when I said (though I mentioned Wdired,
not Dired):

>> AFAIK the best you can do now is to use Wdired and perform
>> query-replace with some fancy replacement expression

The Windows behavior does not require any use of a fancy replacement expression
(Lisp).

Again, we can do better than Windows does, and it is good to also offer fancy
replacement (e.g. Lisp sexps).  But we should also offer something as simple as
Windows does, and not _require_ users who want to do this kind of common
renaming to work their way through Lisp replacement sexps (no matter how simple
the sexp might be).

In addition, we should probably advertise this renaming better (even %R in
Dired), in the Dired/Wdired doc.  If %R is the best we can do for now, then
perhaps add a very simple, short example to illustrate the kind of renaming I
mentioned.

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