Most of you probably know Steve Purcell as the man behind MELPA or perhaps for his Emacs configuration, which many use as a starter kit. But, in fact, he’s the author or maintainer of numerous packages, one of which is whole-line-or-region. As I’ve written before, whole-line-or-region is one of my most used commands. I call it several times a day and wouldn’t want to live without it.
Purcell has just released version 2.0. It’s a rewrite that cleans up the code and uses modern Emacs interfaces instead of ad-hoc ways of getting things done. The rewrite eliminates some nasty interactions with things like rectangle-mark-mode so there are user-visible changes as well as general bolt-tightening.
If you’re already a user and are enabling whole-line-or-region-mode, you’ll want to change that to whole-line-or-region-global-mode. Be sure to take a look at the README for some other details.
If you aren’t already a whole-line-or-region user, this is your chance to try it out. You’ll be surprised at how useful it is. When you read the description, your reaction might very well be “meh” but once you start actually using it, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. Purcell calls it “an under-appreciated gem in the Emacs world” and I agree. I don’t know why it hasn’t been subsumed into Emacs core. It really is that useful.