Re: making iswitchb the default

[Kim F. Storm]

Jason Rumney <address@hidden> writes:

> Kim F. Storm wrote:
> > Jason Rumney <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>  >> I type a couple of letters, and press tab, the completions buffer
>  >> that comes up lists all my buffers, including those that don't match.
>  >> If I type the full name of a buffer and hit return, I get some random
>  >> buffer instead.
> 
> > Just FYI, ido doesn't have these problems.
> 
> It does have similarly strange completion results, though with ido I
> can see after some experimentation that if I type "a TAB", I get all
> buffers that contain "a" or "A" anywhere in their name, whereas
> iswitchb doesn't appear to read my input at all.

If you enter another TAB, ido shows all buffer names.  However, with
ido (and iswitchb), you really don't need TAB completion -- you have
the relevant completions listed already in the minibuffer, so using
TAB is an exception rather than the rule (especially if you know
which buffer or file name you are looking for).

Normally ido matches everywhere in the name.  If you prefer matching
from the beginning of the name (defeating part of the the advantage of
ido), do:

        (setq ido-enable-prefix t)

Ido can even do fuzzy matching so you don't have to type more than
necessary, e.g. if you have buffers:
         abcdefg, abcdefh, defgh
and want to select abcdefh, just type "ah" to select it.

Ido also automatically matches in the hidden buffers (or files) if
none the non-hidden buffers (or files) matches your entry.


-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk