Re: xref-query-replace

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 01/10/2016 06:32 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> I don't understand the importance of the length, but the definition of

Knowing the length lets us determine the boundaries of the match inside 
the file. This information is gathered at the time the xref instance in 
constructed.

> a method points to a specific source line, exactly like a reference.
> So whatever you gather from a reference could be done with a
> definition, no?

What will I do with the source line, then? Suppose TAGS file contains an 
entry for the method "foo" pointing to the line

  def self.foo

And the backend returns it as one of the results for the definition of 
"foo". How will we determine the bounds of the match? (search-forward 
"foo")? What if the line looks line this?

  def self.foo(bar); @foo = bar; self.another_foo(@foo); end

We'll get false positives this way.

In another situation, the identifier-to-search can be more complex: say, 
"Bar.foo". Then, even `search-forward' won't help.

To put it differently, neither etags, nor find-func.el provide the 
necessary information to create xrefs with match boundary information.

> > If we define a collective term for such xref functions, we could mention
> > it in their docstrings.
>
> I just don't see what kind of collective name would be possble.

Well, I wouldn't ask if I managed to come up with one. I don't see 
another way to resolve the issue, however.