Re: XEmacs - how to automate mark-search-cut

["Russell L. Harris" <rlharris@oplink.net>]

* Tyler Smith <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca> [070527 00:00]:
> On 2007-05-26, Tyler Smith <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca> wrote:
> > On 2007-05-26, Russell L. Harris <rlharris@oplink.net> wrote:
> >> I need to extract footnotes from a very long LaTeX document.  I would
> >> like to start with a copy of the document, then delete from the copy
> >> all text which is not a footnote.
> >>
> >
> > The easy way:
> >
> > You can use occur to extract all your footnotes to a separate buffer:
> >
> > M-x occur
> > \\footnote{[^}]*
> >
> 
> Hi,
> 
> As you may have realised, if you've tried my easy solution, it is
> easily fooled when your footnotes contain other expressions that
> contain curly-braces. I've worked out a more robust solution that
> is harder to fool. What it does is copy all your footnotes to a
> separate buffer called *FOOTNOTES*. The original document is not
> altered, and point remains where you left it - you won't see any
> change at all until you switch buffers. You can invoke this function
> with 'M-x extract-footnotes'. 
> 
> To install the function put the following code in your .emacs, or I
> suppose that would be .xemacs for you. It will be loaded automatically
> the next time you open xemacs, or you can load it immediately by
> placing the cursor just after the last parenthesis and hitting C-x C-e
> One note - I had to turn off transient-mark-mode to get this to
> work. I don't know why. If you like to use transient mark mode you'll
> have to turn it back on afterwards.
> 
> Here's the code, hope it helps!
> 
> Tyler
> 
> (defun extract-footnotes ()
>   "Copy all footnotes to a separate *FOOTNOTES* buffer"
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((active-buffer (current-buffer)))
>     (save-excursion
>       (if (memq (get-buffer "*FOOTNOTES*") (buffer-list))
> 	  (kill-buffer "*FOOTNOTES*"))
>       (transient-mark-mode -1)
>       (goto-char (point-min))
>       (while (search-forward "\\footnote" nil t)
> 	(goto-char (match-beginning 0))
> 	(push-mark)
> 	(search-forward "e" nil t)
> 	(forward-list)
> 	(append-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*FOOTNOTES*") 
> 			  (mark) (point))
> 	(set-buffer "*FOOTNOTES*")
> 	(goto-char (point-max))
> 	(insert "\n")
> 	(set-buffer active-buffer)))))

Thanks, Tyler.

I did discover the problem with the previous solution, because the
footnotes utilize \emph{...} and \textit{\textbf{...}}.

I looked for transient-mark-mode in XEmacs, but did not find it.  "M-x
transient-mark-mode" gives a "no match" error.

Next, I decided to try to write a Perl script, and that's the point at
which I presently find myself.  

So now I'll stop and give it a try with the code above.

I keep thinking that this should be a feature for which there is
general demand, because it is so useful.  At least it is possible to
set the mark and then execute M-, or M-. in order to highlight the
previous or remaining portion of the document.  

RLH