Editing DWIM (section)

===Emacs===

The concept of  DWIM has been adopted in augmented form within the context of the [[GNU Emacs]] [[text editor]] to describe the design philosophy of [[Emacs Lisp]] functions or commands that attempt to intelligently "[[Worse is better#Characteristics|do the right thing]]" depending on context.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DoWhatIMean|title=Do What I Mean}}</ref> The Emacs [[wiki]] gives the example of a file copy command that is able to [[Deductive reasoning|deduce]] the destination path from a split window configuration that contains two [[dired]] buffers, one of which displays the source path; this behaviour also generalises to many applicable dired actions that take two directory paths for arguments.

DWIM behaviour, when available, is often mentioned in a command's name; e.g. GNU Emacs has a <code>comment-dwim</code> function that comments out a selected region if uncommented, or uncomments it when already commented out, while using comment characters and indentation appropriate for the programming language environment and current context.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Comment-Tips.html|title=Comment Tips|quote=Generally speaking, the M-; (comment-dwim) command automatically starts a comment of the appropriate type; or indents an existing comment to the right place, depending on the number of semicolons.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Comment-Commands.html|title=Comment Commands|quote=The command to create or align a comment is M-; (comment-dwim). The word “dwim” is an acronym for “Do What I Mean”; it indicates that this command can be used for many different jobs relating to comments, depending on the situation where you use it.}}</ref>

This kind of DWIM is often not directly concerned with correcting user error but rather guessing user intent from available context. For example, the Emacs [[Magit]] package evinces this design philosophy pervasively. Among its numerous [[diff]] commands, there is a <code>magit-diff-dwim</code> command, which requires no further input from the user but simply guesses what the user wants to analyse based on the location of the [[cursor (user interface)|cursor]]. The Magit User Manual describes the behaviour of <code>magit-diff-dwim</code> simply: "''Show changes for the thing at point''",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://magit.vc/manual/magit/Diffing.html|title=Magit User Manual: 5.4 Diffing}}</ref> "point" being the Emacs term for the text cursor (not the mouse pointer).