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https://github.com/aspiers/smooth-scrolling

Emacs smooth scrolling package
https://github.com/aspiers/smooth-scrolling

Last synced: 12 days ago
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Emacs smooth scrolling package

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README 

        
# `smooth-scrolling.el`



## About



This package offers a minor mode which make emacs scroll smoothly.  It

keeps the point away from the top and bottom of the current buffer's

window in order to keep lines of context around the point visible as

much as possible, whilst minimising the frequency of sudden scroll

jumps which are visually confusing.



This is a nice alternative to all the native `scroll-*` custom

variables, which unfortunately cannot provide this functionality

perfectly.  For example, when using the built-in variables, clicking

with the mouse in the margin will immediately scroll the window to

maintain the margin, so the text that you clicked on will no longer be

under the mouse.  This can be disorienting.  In contrast, this mode

will not do any scrolling until you actually move up or down a line.



Also, the built-in margin code does not interact well with small

windows.  If the margin is more than half the window height, you get

some weird behavior, because the point is always hitting both the top

and bottom margins.  This package auto-adjusts the margin in each

buffer to never exceed half the window height, so the top and bottom

margins never overlap.



See also emacswiki's

[SmoothScrolling page](http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/SmoothScrolling)

for more information, although at the time of writing, its content

probably did more to confuse than enlighten.



## Installation



You have various options, including the following:



*   Install the [package](https://melpa.org/#/smooth-scrolling)

    from [MELPA](https://melpa.org/#/getting-started)

    (see this [friendly quickstart guide](http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_package_system.html))

*   Install via [`el-get`](https://github.com/dimitri/el-get/blob/master/README.md)

*   Simply download this repository and place the elisp file

    somewhere on your [`load-path`](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/LoadPath).



## Usage



To interactively toggle the mode on / off:



    M-x smooth-scrolling-mode



To make the mode permanent, put this in your .emacs:



    (require 'smooth-scrolling)

    (smooth-scrolling-mode 1)



## Difference with `smooth-scroll.el`



This package should not be confused with the similarly-named

[`smooth-scroll.el`](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/smooth-scroll.el),

which has similar goals but takes a different approach, requiring

navigation keys to be bound to dedicated

`scroll-{up,down,left,right}-1` functions.



## Notes



This only affects the behaviour of the `next-line` and `previous-line`

functions, usually bound to the cursor keys and `C-n`/`C-p`, and

repeated isearches (`isearch-repeat`).  Other methods of moving the

point will behave as normal according to the standard custom

variables.



Prefix arguments to `next-line` and `previous-line` are honored. The

minimum number of lines are scrolled in order to keep the point

outside the margin.



There is one case where moving the point in this fashion may cause a

jump: if the point is placed inside one of the margins by another

method (e.g. left mouse click, or `M-x goto-line`) and then moved in

the normal way, the advice code will scroll the minimum number of

lines in order to keep the point outside the margin.  This jump may

cause some slight confusion at first, but hopefully it is justified by

the benefit of automatically ensuring `smooth-scroll-margin` lines of

context are visible around the point as often as possible.



## TODO



-   Maybe add option to avoid scroll jumps when point is within margin.

-   Minimize the number of autoloads in the file.  Currently

    everything is marked as such.



## Authors



Originally written by Adam Spiers, it was made into a proper ELPA

package by Jeremy Bondeson, and later converted into a minor mode by

Ryan C. Thompson.



Thanks also to Mark Hulme-Jones and consolers on #emacs for helping

debug issues with line-wrapping in the original implementation.