Re: Leaving out non-applicable commands on Mx

[Yuri Khan]

On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 9:08 AM, Drew Adams <address@hidden> wrote:

> And that's also a feature of some "advanced completion
> systems".  But it should not (except by user option) be
> the default behavior. The default behavior should be all
> candidates matching the input patterns and the completion
> predicate - no other "helpful" filtering unless requested
> by the user.

Emacs already contains a feature that filters out many defined
functions from M-x. It’s called (interactive). Functions that are not
declared interactive are not offered as completion candidates, and in
fact cannot be executed with M-x.

This proposal takes (interactive) to a new level, by allowing authors
to specify conditions under which a function should be considered
interactive.

True, some authors will get it wrong and specify too strict
conditions. They will eventually be fixed. Also, M-: is still there as
an escape hatch.