Re: Vertical completions (was: completions - remove window after use?)

[Štěpán Němec]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 11:57:33AM +0200, Juri Linkov wrote:
> >> And speaking about *Completions*, would it be possible to fill the
> >> completions column-first, not row-first as it is now?  I find it quite
> >> unreasonable, as the display is column-wise, but not so filling, making
> >> it harder to quickly skim through the list.
> >
> > I'm not sure why you find it unreasonable, but I'd find it inconvenient
> > when the list overflows the window, to have a column-first listing since
> > I couldn't then first scroll to the interesting area.
> 
> It's easier to skim through a list when completions are sorted
> vertically in columns down the screen.
> 
> That's what `ls' does by default for the list of files unless
> `-x' (`--format=horizontal') is specified.  As well as readline
> completions in bash unless `print-completions-horizontally' is `On'.
> 
> The same would be desirable in Emacs, but it has a problem -
> if columns were sorted vertically, Isearch will still visit matches
> horizontally.

I wouldn't really see that as a problem -- it's quite expectable; I
think it could be actually rather confusing if the search would go in
columns, too -- after all, the columns are just how the text is
displayed, there is no "real" boundary between them.