iregister

Summary

iregister - Interactive register commands for Emacs.

This package is built on top of register.el package and it allows to use registers interactively.

Jump to the markers (stored in the registers) interactivelly.

Assuming that there are already stored some points (by means of point-to-register or iregister-point-to-register command) in the registers. Execute, for example, iregister-jump-to-next-marker and the minibuffer will display the snippet of the stored point's buffer. That snippet will contain the text arround of stored point which allows to figure out whether is that right place to be jumped in or not. If yes, then just hit the RET and the right buffer will be displayed and the point will be in the same place as it was stored before. If no, then try to hit n key or p key to view next/previous markers (points) previously stored in the registers. In the meantime, in the minibuffer, you could hit d key to delete current point from the register. To quit from the minibuffer press q key (or C-g).

Optionally you could use iregister-point-to-register command from any buffer to store current point to register. That command works exactly as point-to-register command but without any prompt, it just finds any empty register and stores there current point.

Insert (append/prepend) interactivelly the texts stored in the registers.

Assuming that there are already stored some texts (by means of copy-to-register or iregister-copy-to-register command) in the registers. Execute iregister-text and the minibuffer will display the text stored in some register. In the appeared minibuffer you can figure out whether is that right text to be inserted or not. If yes, then just hit the RET and the text will be inserted. If no, then try to hit n key or p key to view next/previous texts previously stored in the registers. In the meantime, in the minibuffer, you could hit d key to delete current text from the register. To quit from the minibuffer press q key (or C-g). Also you could use a key for appending or A key for prepending selected text to the current text registry.

Optionally you could use iregister-copy-to-register command from any buffer to store selected text to a register. That command works exactly as copy-to-register command but without any prompt, it just finds any empty register and stores there selected text.

If execute C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register then selected text will be deleted without modifying the kill ring. In case of C-u C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register the selected text will be deleted and saved in the kill ring and in a register as well. In case of C-u C-u C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register the selected text will be kill-ring-save (See the documentation for the kill-ring-save function).

Instead of C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register or C-u C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register or C-u C-u C-u M-x iregister-copy-to-register you could use such functions as iregister-copy-to-register-delete, iregister-copy-to-register-kill and iregister-copy-to-register-kill-ring-save. These commands are useful to use with key bindings.

The command iregister-append-to-latest-register allows to append selected text to the last used register. After execution of iregister-copy-to-register the command iregister-append-to-latest-register will append selected text to the same register.

If execute C-u M-x iregister-append-to-latest-register the selected text will be deleted without modifying the kill ring. In case of C-u C-u M-x iregister-append-to-latest-register the selected text will be deleted and saved in the kill ring.

Instead of C-u M-x iregister-append-to-latest-register and C-u C-u M-x iregister-append-to-latest-register you could use such functions as iregister-append-to-latest-register-delete and iregister-append-to-latest-register-kill. These commands are useful to use with key bindings.

Utility functions

There are also two helpful functions which you could use with some key binding: iregister-point-or-text-to-register and iregister-point-or-text-to-register-kill-ring-save. iregister-point-or-text-to-register function stores point to register in case of region is inactive, otherwise stores a text to register. iregister-point-or-text-to-register-kill-ring-save behaves mostly in the same way as iregister-point-or-text-to-register but it perform kill-ring-save on active region thus it save the text for a window system cut and paste. You can bind iregister-point-or-text-to-register-kill-ring-save to the M-w key and that would allow to kill-ring-save an active region and store it to the register.

Installation

From MELPA or Marmalade

Just run M-x package-install RET iregister RET

Manual installation

Assuming that the file iregister.el is somewhere on the load path, add the following lines to your .emacs file:

(require 'iregister)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-n") 'iregister-jump-to-next-marker)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-p") 'iregister-jump-to-previous-marker)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-u") 'iregister-point-or-text-to-register)

If region is active then iregister-point-or-text-to-register command stores a text to any empty register, otherwise it stores a point.

(global-set-key (kbd "M-l") 'iregister-latest-text)

You can also try to bind `iregister' functions in the following way:

(global-set-key (kbd "M-w") 'iregister-point-or-text-to-register-kill-ring-save)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-w") 'iregister-copy-to-register-kill)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-y") 'iregister-latest-text)

Anyway change the key bindings to your liking.

Contribution

All contributions are much welcome and appreciated!