bug#69097: [PATCH] Add 'kill-region-or-word' command

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: rms@gnu.org, 69097@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 03 May 2024 13:59:00 +0300
> From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> 
> > From: Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net>
> > Cc: 69097@debbugs.gnu.org,  Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> > Date: Fri, 03 May 2024 10:48:13 +0000
> > 
> > > More to the point, can you explain why we need this, given the
> > > existence of kill-word?
> > >
> > > Also, this kills backward, something that is not evident, neither from
> > > the name of the command nor from the doc string (and the obscure
> > > reference to Unix doesn't help, IMO).
> > >
> > > Finally, having another command that kills the region doesn't seem
> > > justified, or is it?
> > 
> > The motivation is sort of the same as with generalising `upcase-word' to
> > `upcase-dwim'.  If there is no active region, it behaves like
> > `backward-kill-word' (which is what C-w does in a terminal as well), but
> > if there is an active region it reverts to `kill-ring-save'.
> 
> If so, then (assuming we decide to accept this change), the name of
> the command should be something like kill-word-dwim, and the doc
> string should mention the two commands you refer to above.
> 
> > I have this in my personal configuration for ages, and it is always
> > one of the first things I re-implement when using an Emacs without a
> > custom init.el.
> 
> Any reason why you need this command and cannot settle for the two
> commands it replaces heuristically?  Are you using Emacs with
> transient-mark-mode on or off?

And one more question: currently C-w signals an error if there's no
region.  So another idea is to extend C-w to delete the word at point
if there's no region (where "no region" means "no active region" if
transient-mark-mode is ON, otherwise it means "no mark set").