I never actually used them before, but I’m curious when looking at the consult-mark, and consult-register commands from the consult package.
Marks
As I further looking for resources on marks, I also found out that Vim has it’s own implementation of mark. This interest me since I’ve been using evil-mode for a long time, and now I have the opportunity to use both Emacs and Vim marks, and see which one fits for me.
Vim Mark
Primarily used for quick navigation within a file or across multiple files. They act as bookmark for specific location.
Types
- Lowercase marks (a-z)
- Local to the current buffer (file).
- Uppercase marks (A-Z)
- Global and persist across different buffers. They can be used to jump to a specific location in another file.
- Special marks
- Include marks for the last jump (
'), the last change (.), and the last visual selection (<,>).
Emacs Mark
The Emacs mark is a single, active point used in conjunction with the cursor (point) to define a region of text. This region is then used for various operations like copying, cutting, or formatting.
Also in Emacs, there’s a Mark Ring that belongs to each buffer, and a Global Mark Ring which recorded if you have switched buffers since the previous mark setting. The global mark ring records a sequence of buffers that you have been in, and, for each buffer, a place where you set the mark.
Bookmark
Emacs bookmarks are a feature that allows users to save and quickly navigate to specific locations within files or even save entire files for later access. They are particularly useful for managing multiple projects or frequently accessed files across different Emacs sessions.
Registers
This is where Emacs differs from Vim, Emacs registers can stores different information, such as point position, text, numbers, window and frame configuration, buffer and file names.
Is it really that good?
The only way to benefit from marks and registers is by getting the habit of using it.
Vim-style mark
The default keybindings for mark in evil-mode is untouch so I can get accustomed to it in Vim or Emacs. Set mark in normal-mode with m followed by a letter. And jump back to it using ' and that same letter.
Register
I’ve set a keybinding (SPC .) for storing register, and (SPC C-.) for loading registers. Also SPC s " for viewing the registers. It feels like a cheat since I’m using consult.