Re: Updating *Completions* as you type

[Spencer Baugh]

Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net> writes:

>>> Actually there is already a nil value in completions-sort with the tag
>>> "No sorting".  This works nicely for 'C-x b'.  The remaining need is
>>> to be able to set it only for 'C-x b', not for other completion types.
>>
>> I feel quite strongly that we should not extend completions-sort to be
>> able to affect different completion types differently.  Instead I think
>> we should leave completions-sort as a blanket configuration for what to
>> do if the completion metadata does not specify display-sort-function,
>> and if we want to allow customizing an individual completion type, that
>> completion type should specify a display-sort-function which can be
>> customized.
>>
>> If we do extend completions-sort to affect different completion types
>> differently, I expect we'll see lots of silly things, like packages with
>> new completion types which automatically install changes to
>> completions-sort instead of just specifying their own
>> display-sort-function.
>
> Probably different completion types should provide separate options
> such as e.g. 'read-char-by-name-sort' defines 'display-sort-function'
> for 'read-char-by-name'.

Agreed.

> The same could be added for 'C-x b'.  But unfortunately currently
> it's hard-coded in 'internal-complete-buffer':
>
> #+begin_src c
>   else if (EQ (flag, Qmetadata))
>     return list3 (Qmetadata,
>                   Fcons (Qcategory, Qbuffer),
>                   Fcons (Qcycle_sort_function, Qidentity));
> #+end_src

Not hard to fix.  I will post a patch to make this customizable soon.