Re: xref rocks!

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 04/26/2016 08:12 PM, Robert Weiner wrote:

> One thing that would help would be better
> separation between finding xrefs (which should just return lists of
> them) and displaying xrefs.  For example, I went looking for a generic
> xref equivalent to find-tag-noselect and the only thing I found was
> something specific to elisp tags.

find-tag-noselect returns a target buffer, which doesn't seem very relevant.

Are you looking for

   (xref-backend-definitions (xref-find-backend) "car")

?

> Shouldn't there be something like
> xref-find-definitions that only returns a list of definitions and does
> not display them?

If you mean returns a list of xrefs, see above.

> Also, there seem to be many functions that just call a single other
> functions, creating a deeply nested tree of calls.  Is there a way to
> simplify that?

Could you give an example?

> I also see that about a year ago there was a call for documenting
> xref.el.  Has any progress been made on that?  Even though things will
> change, writing the documentation will give you a base that you can
> adapt as the library evolves and will help people to provide further
> feedback.

There is an introduction in Commentary at the top of xref.el. You can 
read it, among other ways, using `M-x describe-package RET xref RET'.

And, of course, see the docstrings. (info "(elisp) Generic Functions") 
might also be relevant.

If some things remain unclear, please go ahead and file documentation 
bugs, as long as they are more specific than "Write a manual".

Thanks in advance,
Dmitry.