Re: prevent scroll-lock-mode from scrolling?

[Dmitry Alexandrov]

lee <lee@yagibdah.de> writes:
> Can you explain to me why the cursor remains at its position /on the
> screen/ while I'm scrolling with scroll-lock-mode enabled all the time
> like it should --- and then suddenly moves when the top or bottom of the
> buffer contents come into view?  That doesn't make any sense to me; the
> cursor still shouldn't move.

Given that there is no free space before the first line of a buffer,
this does make perfect sense with regard to scrolling backward (to the
top of a buffer).  The other way we would just get stuck with the point
in the middle of a screen not being able to reach first lines.  The
scrolling forward behaves the same way for sake of coherence, I guess.

Anyway, if you look into the code, you’ll see that this behaviour is
definetely intentional:

(defun scroll-lock-next-line (&optional arg)
  "Scroll up ARG lines keeping point fixed."
  (interactive "p")
  (or arg (setq arg 1))
  (scroll-lock-update-goal-column)
  (if (pos-visible-in-window-p (point-max))
      (forward-line arg)
    (scroll-up arg))
  (scroll-lock-move-to-column scroll-lock-temporary-goal-column))

(defun scroll-lock-previous-line (&optional arg)
  "Scroll up ARG lines keeping point fixed."
  (interactive "p")
  (or arg (setq arg 1))
  (scroll-lock-update-goal-column)
  (condition-case nil
      (scroll-down arg)
    (beginning-of-buffer (forward-line (- arg))))
  (scroll-lock-move-to-column scroll-lock-temporary-goal-column))

However, if you do not like it, just remove the condition:

(defun my-scroll-lock-next-line (&optional arg)
  "Scroll up ARG lines keeping point fixed."
  (interactive "p")
  (or arg (setq arg 1))
  (scroll-lock-update-goal-column)
  (scroll-up arg)
  (scroll-lock-move-to-column scroll-lock-temporary-goal-column))

(defun my-scroll-lock-previous-line (&optional arg)
  "Scroll up ARG lines keeping point fixed."
  (interactive "p")
  (or arg (setq arg 1))
  (scroll-lock-update-goal-column)
  (scroll-down arg)
  (scroll-lock-move-to-column scroll-lock-temporary-goal-column))

(advice-add 'scroll-lock-next-line :override #'my-scroll-lock-next-line)
(advice-add 'scroll-lock-previous-line :override #'my-scroll-lock-previous-line)

Also, if you are regularily toggling the ‘scroll-lock-mode’ on and off,
you might consider to use approach that, one might say, is more
‘Emacsish’ — another keychord instead of mode:

(setq scroll-preserve-screen-position 'always)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-n") #'scroll-up-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<down>") #'scroll-up-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-p") #'scroll-down-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<up>") #'scroll-down-line)