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Fwd: Prepend an indicator to the minibuffer prompt to show you can use c
From: |
Ken Manheimer |
Subject: |
Fwd: Prepend an indicator to the minibuffer prompt to show you can use completion |
Date: |
Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:24:12 -0400 |
[whoops - sent a separate copy directly to drew, meant to cc the list.]
On 8/13/06, Drew Adams <address@hidden> wrote:
Minor feature suggestion, for after the release:
Prepend a one-character indicator, with a face that stands out, to the
minibuffer prompt, whenever completion is possible.
[...]
Knowing whether completion is available can change the way you interact with
Emacs. Not knowing it is available can mean that you miss out on a quick way
of inputting something.
i like this idea. i have a few modifications.
first, i would prefer to use a new indicator in the fringe, when the
fringe is present - seems like this would be a nice use of that real
estate, more suitable than precious minibuffer content space. the new
cue would display with the fringe top-of-buffer signal, when people
use that, but that's generally redundant in the minibuffer, since it
always has a prompt on the first line, and usually contains one or
just a few lines.
second, you get many of the benefits you seek, and more, with
something like icomplete. with icomplete, on the third character you
get a concise indication of the completion prospects, not just that
completion is available. a fringe indicator would not conflict,
however, and would still be nice, though less necessary.
An additional subtlety can help a little more: I prepend a different
character (`=') and highlight it in a different color, whenever completion
requires a match.
with icomplete you get different braces around the completion
prospects depending on whether the match is required or optional.
i think that having the option for an indicator in the fringe, whether
or not you use something like icomplete, would be good.
--
ken
address@hidden
http://myriadicity.net
--
ken
address@hidden
http://myriadicity.net