Re: [Patch] Add project.el command to replace symbol at point throughout project

[Dmitry Gutov]

Hi!

On 11.01.2022 09:45, Jon Eskin wrote:
> Attached is a small patch adding command 
> 'project-query-replace-at-point' to project.el. The command is designed 
> to improve the ergonomics of making a project wide text replacement of a 
> symbol at point.
>
> Currently, if you want to make a project wide replacement of a symbol 
> using project.el, the best options I've found are:

> or
>
> - Mark the symbol you wish to replace
> - Save symbol to kill ring with 'kill-ring-save'

You don't need these two steps, do you? Just do the rest, and it should 
work.

> - Place cursor on symbol and enter command 'project-find-regexp'
> - Hit return at the next prompt to accept the default prompt
> - Enter command 'xref-query-replace-in-results'
> - Enter the replacement string and hit return

I agree it could use some more optimization still.

> 'project-query-replace-at-point' regex-quotes the symbol at point and 
> then calls into the fileloop-initialize-replace function used by the 
> existing project-query-replace-regexp command.
>
> Replacing a symbol with 'project-query-replace-at-point' occurs as follows:
>
> - Place cursor on symbol and enter command 'project-query-replace-at-point'
> - Enter the replacement string and hit return
>
> Let me know what you guys think. I haven't contributed before so please 
> let me know if I'm doing anything incorrectly.

If we're trying to improve project-query-replace-regexp, why not make it 
use the symbol at point by default?

You would use the same command, but would be able to press RET to have 
the default regexp (symbol at point) used as FROM. I don't have a patch 
yet, but it might be something that all callers of 
query-replace-read-args might benefit from.

And you can actually do this right now:

- Enter command 'project-query-replace-regexp'
- Press M-n, having the symbol at point picked up as FROM, hit return
- Enter the replacement string and hit return