RE: Include which-key.el in the Emacs distribution

[Drew Adams]

>    PS. I personally think it should be enabled by default, but we would
>        probably do better to first include it as an option for people to
>        get more experience with it.
> 
> Could the output be improved though?  The current output is VERY
> verbose, and quite bare and unexplanatory.  On my terminal it takes up
> 9 lines when just hitting C-x.  It also dislikes any type of prefix
> command and hides the output from those.  E.g, C-h, M-o etc, where it
> eats the message from the original command.
> 
> Instead why not if you press C-x in the echo area a short list of
> commands could be produced that you can scroll through, similar to
> which-key but not as talkative.  It could say,
> 
>   C-x                 (f - edit file, o - other window, ...)
> 
> The prefix commands C-x 4, C-x r etc could also produces such
> messages.  Like Emacs does for M-o.  This list could be curated.
> 
> Maybe that would be a nice middle ground, not to talkative, helps the
> new user and won't annoy the old farts too much?

See also `keysee.el':

No problem with prefix keys/commands (C-h, M-o, etc.).
No problem showing available keys at top level.
No problem navigating back up the key hierarchy - up,
 down, all around.
No problem with menu-bar menus (up, down, all around).
You can match keys, commands, or both.
You can sort matches on the fly:
 * By key name alphabetically, prefix keys first
 * By key name alphabetically, local keys first
 * By command name alphabetically

It does, however, show all matches in *Completions*,
(as opposed to just a few matches in the echo area).

If you have a way of limiting the window height of
*Completions* then that would help reduce the visual
overload you complain about.

But maybe what you really want for that is something
that decides which are the most important keys to
show.  Sorting *Completions* according to such
"importance" (and showing it in a short window)
would help with that.  One easy way to automatically
define such "importance" could be to sort keys by
their recent frequency.

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeySee

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/download/keysee.el
___


(FWIW: If you use Icicles then you have what
keysee.el offers plus much more, including control
over *Completions* display, sort orders etc.

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Key_Completion)