RE: A quick way of opening any file with given extension withinadirectory hierarchy?

[Drew Adams]

> > Icicles does what you want. Specifically, command `icicle-locate-file'.
>
> Does it use Emacs' locate? Does it work e.g. on MS Windows also? I
> recently tried locate (and ~dired-find-...) but none of them worked:
> they missed some external programs (locate & find).

No, it does not. It matches absolute file names, on the fly. You do not need
an OS `locate' program to use it - you can use it on any platform and you
need not update a database of locations. See the doc:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/LocateFilesAnywhere.

An Icicles user did write an Emacs command that takes advantage of the OS
`locate' command, if you have such a command and prefer it:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/IciclesUserDefinedCommands.

> I used a not-latest EmacsW32. Maybe newer versions (of patched
> EmacsW32' install) contains these (from MinGW)?

Emacs 22 contains a `locate' command, which is a wrapper for the GNU/Linux
or UNIX `locate' command. I haven't used it.

BTW, besides Icicles and the Emacs `locate' command, there are other ways to
do what was requested - see
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/LocateFilesAnywhere.