Re: [PATCH] Function for copying field values

[Roland Winkler]

On Thu Sep 3 2015 Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
> Basically it does what it says: if point is on a record name, the
> whole record is copied, like before. If point is on a particular
> field, the value (but not label) of that field is copied.

I am just trying to understand a typical usage pattern for the
extended code.  I understand that it can make sense for a single
record to grab the value of only one field.  Yet what would this be
good for with multiple records?  It seems to me that with multiple
records, this would make sense only if it included also the name of
the record.

Roland

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Re: [PATCH] Function for copying field values

[Eric Abrahamsen]

"Roland Winkler"  writes:

> On Sat Sep 5 2015 Roland Winkler wrote:
>> On Thu Sep 3 2015 Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
>> > Basically it does what it says: if point is on a record name, the
>> > whole record is copied, like before. If point is on a particular
>> > field, the value (but not label) of that field is copied.
>> 
>> I am just trying to understand a typical usage pattern for the
>> extended code.  I understand that it can make sense for a single
>> record to grab the value of only one field.  Yet what would this be
>> good for with multiple records?  It seems to me that with multiple
>> records, this would make sense only if it included also the name of
>> the record.
>
> One more thought: Why treat names special?  The only field, where it
> appears to make sense to grab its value from multiple records
> without including some "identifier", would be the name field.
>
> Then, treating all fields the same way might work best with a
> separate command bbdb-copy-field-as-kill instead of extending the
> functionality of bbdb-copy-records-as-kill.  The prefix arg could
> then possibly be used in a different way: with prefix arg the
> command could also grab the name field.  (Or: include the name field
> whenever this command operates on more than one record?)

Yup, I asked myself many of these same questions, and I'm not really
sure why I settled on the current behavior. All I really need is a quick
way to copy and share addresses, phone numbers, and mails from my
contacts -- usually just one, and I don't need the name attached. Beyond
that, I'm happy to work this however seems most useful.

Your last suggestion seems as good as anything I could come up with: why
don't we do a separate function that only copies fields. If the name was
included automatically when copying multiple records, then the prefix
arg could be saved for selecting members from a list value, like it does
now. Mostly that's useful when people have a million different email
addresses.

E


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Re: [PATCH] Function for copying field values

[Roland Winkler]

On Sat Sep 5 2015 Roland Winkler wrote:
> On Thu Sep 3 2015 Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
> > Basically it does what it says: if point is on a record name, the
> > whole record is copied, like before. If point is on a particular
> > field, the value (but not label) of that field is copied.
> 
> I am just trying to understand a typical usage pattern for the
> extended code.  I understand that it can make sense for a single
> record to grab the value of only one field.  Yet what would this be
> good for with multiple records?  It seems to me that with multiple
> records, this would make sense only if it included also the name of
> the record.

One more thought: Why treat names special?  The only field, where it
appears to make sense to grab its value from multiple records
without including some "identifier", would be the name field.

Then, treating all fields the same way might work best with a
separate command bbdb-copy-field-as-kill instead of extending the
functionality of bbdb-copy-records-as-kill.  The prefix arg could
then possibly be used in a different way: with prefix arg the
command could also grab the name field.  (Or: include the name field
whenever this command operates on more than one record?)

Roland

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