RE: propose adding Icicles to Emacs

[Davis Herring]

> In the vanilla Emacs `customize-apropos-faces', you must provide a regexp
> once and for all, with RET - there is no completion of face names
> available,
> and no way to rectify your regexp without starting over.
>
> This is a good example of the general advantage of regexp matching on the
> fly, and the advantage of providing input by completion whenever possible.

I'm not arguing against the end-result here (an interactive guide to the
effects of your entered regexp), but it strikes me as intensely confusing
to use the standard completing read mechanism (or a variant of it) to read
one thing (a regexp) while providing "completion" on another (face names).
 As a silly example, suppose a face name contained the character $: then
selecting it from *Completions* (because you realized you wanted just that
one) would have entirely the wrong effect.

In general, then, this process probably deserves another name than
"completing-read".  It's related to re-builder, in that it is interactive
"explanation" of a regexp; perhaps it could be called "building-read" or
so?

Davis

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