bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

[Philipp Stephani]

C-h f abbrev TAB

You'll get completions for internal functions such as abbrev--describe.
By default minibuffer completions shouldn't complete such internal
names, as users aren't supposed to use them directly.


In GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 3, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.24)
 of 2018-01-22 built on localhost
Repository revision: d0fd9809d7574c67a181225fcc1c59afdbb1295c
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11903000
System Description: Debian GNU/Linux

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Configured using:
 'configure --without-threads --enable-gcc-warnings=warn-only
 --enable-gtk-deprecation-warnings --without-pop --with-mailutils
 --enable-checking --enable-check-lisp-object-type --with-modules
 'CFLAGS=-O0 -ggdb3''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG SOUND DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY GNUTLS FREETYPE XFT
ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 MODULES JSON

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message rmc puny seq byte-opt gv
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format-spec rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec password-cache epa derived epg
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mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047
rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils elec-pair time-date
mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar
dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list replace newcomment
text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar
rfn-eshadow isearch timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock
syntax facemenu font-core term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian
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japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european
ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese composite charscript charprop
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev obarray minibuffer
cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote dbusbind inotify
dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk
x-toolkit x multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 95224 8773)
 (symbols 48 20322 1)
 (miscs 40 41 121)
 (strings 32 28331 1925)
 (string-bytes 1 756482)
 (vectors 16 14132)
 (vector-slots 8 499266 14024)
 (floats 8 49 68)
 (intervals 56 225 0)
 (buffers 992 12))

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bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

[Drew Adams]

> C-h f abbrev TAB
> 
> You'll get completions for internal functions such as abbrev--describe.

Of course.  As well you should.

> By default minibuffer completions shouldn't complete such internal
> names, as users aren't supposed to use them directly.

This is ridiculous, IMHO.  Users are not supposed to use
"internal" functions directly?  Nonsense.

Besides which, "use" is meaningless here.  Completing
a name doesn't imply calling the name as a function or
evaluating it as a variable.  And there is nothing wrong
with doing either of things, anyway.  Would you also
forbid `mapatoms' from using (acting on) "internal" names?

"Minibuffer completions" means multiple things, anyway.

Anyone can use `completing-read' or any other minibuffer
completion function in a way that does not complete
"internal" names, if they want to.

bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:09:05 +0100
> 
> C-h f abbrev TAB
> 
> You'll get completions for internal functions such as abbrev--describe.
> By default minibuffer completions shouldn't complete such internal
> names, as users aren't supposed to use them directly.

I disagree: "C-h f" is not only for users, it's also for developers.

bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

[Charles A. Roelli]

> From: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:09:05 +0100
> 
> C-h f abbrev TAB
> 
> You'll get completions for internal functions such as abbrev--describe.
> By default minibuffer completions shouldn't complete such internal
> names, as users aren't supposed to use them directly.

How do you define "internal functions", and who says users can't use
them?  If that is indeed true, it should be written in big letters
somewhere.

See also Bug#29876, which is about clarifying the "internal function"
idea.

bug#30206: 27.0.50; Minibuffer completion should not complete internal names

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2@gmail.com>
>> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:09:05 +0100
>> 
>> C-h f abbrev TAB
>> 
>> You'll get completions for internal functions such as abbrev--describe.
>> By default minibuffer completions shouldn't complete such internal
>> names, as users aren't supposed to use them directly.
>
> I disagree: "C-h f" is not only for users, it's also for developers.

It seemed like everybody who chimed in didn't support the suggestion, so
I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
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   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no