Re: Emacs completion matches selection UI

[Stefan Monnier]

> > proportional fonts?
> If having fundamental incompatibilities with some modes of operation is the
> worst problem we have, I'd say that's pretty good.

I do think it's pretty good, indeed.  But these problems are serious
enough to be a reason not to enable it by default (tho, it's not the
only reason, obviously).

Note that the new rectangle highlighting suffers from the same
problem ;-)  But there I have the excuse that "the highlighting just
reflects what C-x r k does, so it's weird but it's not the
highlighting's fault".

DG> In graphical mode, I think we can make a more reliable popup by
DG> adapting some code in `tooltip.el'. That would be incompatible with
DG> running in terminal, but there are no proportional fonts in terminal
DG> either (I think...?)

Sounds good.

> Works for me, as long as it's standard (so we don't have the current
> "reinvention of the wheel" everywhere).

Good point.

> Sounds good.  For usability, it may be better to lock users into the
> mode until they press `RET' or `C-g' or `ESC' (as expected).

The popup I see in Firefox lets me "keep on typing" without having to
hit C-g/ESC or any such thing.

SM> The main issue is then to figure out how/when to switch to this
SM> new mode.  E.g. when the user hits `up' right after the *Completions*
SM> buffer got displayed/updated?
> Maybe the trigger should be another `TAB'?  That's what I would press,
> intuitively.

Another TAB currently means "scroll the *Completions* buffer".
I'm not sure if we want to get rid of that feature.

I personally never use "up" and prefer M-p for that.  So I tend to think
it's OK to hijack `up' and `down' to enter the *completions* when it is
displayed (tho I think the way this new mode should work, it should not
switch to the *Completions* window, but instead just change key-bindings
in the minibuffer to highlight/select an entry in *Completions*).

> Do you think this can realistically happen for 24.4?  I would be excited
> to help test and give feedback, and maybe even help with the code.

The freeze is planned for mid-december so there's no much time.  OTOH it
might not take that much time to write either.


        Stefan