spacemacs/layers/+emacs/better-defaults/funcs.el

;;; funcs.el --- Better Emacs Defaults Layer functions File
;;
;; Copyright (c) 2012-2017 Sylvain Benner & Contributors
;;
;; Author: Sylvain Benner <sylvain.benner@gmail.com>
;; URL: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
;;
;; This file is not part of GNU Emacs.
;;
;;; License: GPLv3

(defun spacemacs/backward-kill-word-or-region (&optional arg)
  "Calls `kill-region' when a region is active and
`backward-kill-word' otherwise. ARG is passed to
`backward-kill-word' if no region is active."
  (interactive "p")
  (if (region-active-p)
      ;; call interactively so kill-region handles rectangular selection
      ;; correctly (see https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/3278)
      (call-interactively #'kill-region)
    (backward-kill-word arg)))