Re: xref-find-matches and stuff

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Vitalie Spinu <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 08 May 2015 23:52:30 +0200
> Cc: Helmut Eller <address@hidden>, emacs-devel <address@hidden>
> 
>  >>> Dmitry Gutov on Fri, 8 May 2015 22:42:35 +0300 wrote:
> 
> 
>  > And my point is, the backends should be made well enough that you
>  > generally won't want to use a symbol from the 2nd backend that isn't
>  > in the first one. Ideally because there will be no such symbols.
> 
> I am afraid this is an impossible task.

Can you tell why?

> Anyways, I am summarizing my point in a final attempt to "make a case";)
> 
>   - IMENU operates on what I work, is always up-to date, works with
>     non-programming modes (org, latex etc), non-visiting buffers
>     (*scratch*) and any project-less file/language what I might open for
>     whatever cursory reason. Stuff works out of the box - no tagging, no
>     REPL is required.
> 
>   - REPLs are good, but work only on loaded files. Usually these cannot
>     work with multiple projects or multi-language projects. Cross
>     references support is lacking for many REPLs.
> 
>   - TAGs can support multiple projects but cannot do what Imenu can and
>     will never be as smart as REPLs can be. No support for less common
>     languages. Limited UI in emacs is a hindrance for common users (I
>     cannot comment about ggtags though).

To me, this means we need to have a single back-end for each
situation, and ideally also a mechanism to choose that single back-end
automatically.  I see no reasons to conclude that we need more than
one in each use case.