Re: Can't enter filenames with spaces

[David Reitter]

On 26 Jun 2005, at 01:24, Miles Bader wrote:
> > How is a user supposed to know about C-q? Checking the manual for
> > something as simple as entering a file name is ridiculous, and even
> > if you do a C-h k C-x C-f (which is probably the obvious place for a
> > new user to look).
>
> C-q has nothing to do with "entering a file name", it's a general
> emacs editing command.  It's something that users should know about
> regardless (and is covered in the tutorial).

You can get far without knowing it. And if you don't know it and  
can't enter a file name using the obvious keys, well then the user  
looks up the help entry to find-file. Of course the input is not  
handled by the interactive find-file, we know that. But a user doesn't.

I gave the example about defining 'v' as 'view' in such a situation.  
You can do that, of course, and put it somewhere in a manual. If a  
user asks or complains, you can always point to page 378 of the  
manual. But this is obviously not a satisfying solution.

Mapping the space bar to some function used to be alright. But for  
several years now, spaces in file names have been perfectly  
acceptable. That should prompt a revision of the input strategy.

Is the minibuffer-complete-word function useful in the case of file  
names?