Make `denote-region` delete the text in source note and leave a link to the target file

[siainbuletin]

Hi Prot,

As kind of a counterpart to denote-org #16 that I just opened, I was thinking about an enhancement for the denote-region command. I think it should have an option to also remove the text from the source file after it has been moved to the target file.

Besides often merging notes, I also split content apart from one note to other more "atomic" notes. The denote-region command currently functions like copying and pasting. Perhaps the other option would be something like denote-region-cut (or something more aptly titled), which would remove the text from the source file. As a bonus, it would be nice if it could leave a denote link to the target file in the source file. It's kind of the inverse of my-denote-region-get-source-reference. Instead of adding a link to the source from which denote-region was called, leave a link in the source file.

Perhaps to make my request easier to understand.

File A:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus ultrices, 
erat ut condimentum ultricies, dui dolor facilisis odio, ut efficitur purus 
turpis pellentesque dolor. [[[Quisque aliquet elit placerat sapien accumsan, 
sed fringilla ex fermentum. Nam enim odio, iaculis at nisl eu, tempus lobortis
justo. Aenean sit amet fermentum ex, nec finibus eros. Curabitur id mattis libero.]]]

The text in the [[[square brackets]]] is moved to File B, which after invoking the hypothetical denote-region-cut looks like this:

Quisque aliquet elit placerat sapien accumsan, sed fringilla ex fermentum. Nam
enim odio, iaculis at nisl eu, tempus lobortis justo. Aenean sit amet fermentum
ex, nec finibus eros. Curabitur id mattis libero.

And File A now looks like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus ultrices, erat
ut condimentum ultricies, dui dolor facilisis odio, ut efficitur purus turpis
pellentesque dolor. [[denote:20251119T133849][File B]]

Thank you!

[protesilaos]

Good morning from my side @siainbuletin!

Thank you for the feedback! We can discuss if denote-region should be extended. But before we do that I suggest we discuss all such functionality in the context of the new denote-merge package I wrote (as promised, I did it last evening and then some more earlier this morning): denote-merge repository.

Start by installing the package from source. For example, with Emacs version 30 you can evaluate this:

(package-vc-install "https://github.com/protesilaos/denote-merge.git")

Once you have the package installed, you can do M-x package-vc-upgrade to pull in the latest changes.

With denote-merge we now have two types of "merge": (i) one file into another (ii) a region from one file into another with links between the two and with an option to format the inserted region in a certain way. The relevant commands are denote-merge-file and denote-merge-region. Use M-x describe-command and search for those commands to learn about them.

Try things out and let me know where we stand. I appreciate your feedback!

[siainbuletin]

Good morning, Prot!

Just tested both the denote-merge-file and denote-merge-region functions. Merging files works without any issues. Merging regions also works well, although I encountered an issue with the links that are left behind both in the source and the destination files. I've opened an issue separately in the denote-merge repository describing it: denote-merge #1

[protesilaos]

Just a note about denote-merge: I have not heard back from the folks on the emacs-devel mailing list. Waiting for them to add the package to GNU ELPA.