RE: position on changing defaults?

[Drew Adams]

>    I find iswitchb and anything very convenient as they both match
>    anywhere inside a string. I hate needing to type that 
>    leading `*' when going to buffers which such names.
> 
> I find it counter intuitive too. Ideally, one would just have to
> type sorted _but_ not consecutive letters to reach the buffer of
> choice.
> 
> For example, typing fb would automatically restrict the buffer
> list to candidates such as *foobar*, fb, fabrice, ...

FWIW, you can do that using either Icicles or Ido. Icicles calls it
"scatter" matching. Ido calls it "flex" matching.

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_Fuzzy_Completion#toc2