bug#13206: 24.3.50; FR: insert-char must(?) show characters visually in completion buffer

bug#13206: 24.3.50; FR: insert-char must(?) show characters visually in completion buffer

[Jambunathan K]

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(My NIC card went down during earlier sent.  Apologies if it results in
duplicate bug)

It will be wonderful if ucs-insert shows the characters visually in the
completion buffer.

Here is a proof-of-concept.  Install an annotation function. 

    (setq completion-extra-properties
          (list :annotation-function 'annotate-ucs-names))

    (defun annotate-ucs-names (name)
      (format "(%s)" (char-to-string (cdr (assoc-string name (ucs-names) t)))))

M-x insert-char RET will give screenshot 1.  Note the presence of
characters visually next to char names.  I would have wised to place the
the glyphs come before the description.

Now let us install a small /hack/ to minibuffer as shown below. The
result is as shown in screenshot 2, which I would much prefer.
(Ofcourse, the insertion itself wouldn't work)

Following two things emerge from this experiment.

    1. Annotation may go infront of the candidate.
    2. Annotation may provide a substitution for visual feedback etc etc.


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=== modified file 'lisp/minibuffer.el'
--- lisp/minibuffer.el	2012-11-29 21:32:24 +0000
+++ lisp/minibuffer.el	2012-12-17 13:20:32 +0000
@@ -1690,7 +1690,9 @@ variables.")
             (setq completions
                   (mapcar (lambda (s)
                             (let ((ann (funcall afun s)))
-                              (if ann (list s ann) s)))
+                              ;; (if ann (list s ann) s)
+			      ann
+			      ))
                           completions)))
 
           (with-current-buffer standard-output


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In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.5 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2012-12-15 on debian-6.05
Bzr revision: 111244 eliz@gnu.org-20121215133821-ie5ujd9ogv3tw34f
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10707000
Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_IN
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

bug#13206: 24.3.50; FR: insert-char must(?) show characters visually in completion buffer

[Stefan Monnier]

> It will be wonderful if ucs-insert shows the characters visually in the
> completion buffer.

> Here is a proof-of-concept.  Install an annotation function. 

>     (setq completion-extra-properties
>           (list :annotation-function 'annotate-ucs-names))

>     (defun annotate-ucs-names (name)
>       (format "(%s)" (char-to-string (cdr (assoc-string name (ucs-names) t)))))

I'd be happy to install such a patch, yes.  Please send it along.

> M-x insert-char RET will give screenshot 1.  Note the presence of
> characters visually next to char names.  I would have wised to place the
> the glyphs come before the description.

Indeed, placing them before would make sense.

> Now let us install a small /hack/ to minibuffer as shown below. The
> result is as shown in screenshot 2, which I would much prefer.
> (Ofcourse, the insertion itself wouldn't work)

Indeed, this version has various problems.  E.g. as a user, I'd often
have trouble figuring out which chars goes with which name.

I agree that the annotation mechanism would deserve improvement.


        Stefan

bug#13206: 24.3.50; FR: insert-char must(?) show characters visually in completion buffer

[Drew Adams]

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> It will be wonderful if ucs-insert shows the characters 
> visually in the completion buffer.

FWIW, Icicles has had that feature for quite a while.

The attached screenshot shows also what happens when cycling:
*Completions* mode line shows the char with its code point.

,----
| icicle-read-char-by-name is a compiled Lisp function.
| 
| (icicle-read-char-by-name PROMPT &optional NAMES)
| 
| Read a character by its Unicode name or hex number string.
| Display PROMPT and read a string that represents a character by its
| Unicode property `name' or `old-name'.  Return the char as a number.
| 
| You can use completion against the Unicode name of the character.
| 
| In Icicle mode:
| 
| * The character itself is displayed next to its name, even though it
|   is not part of the completion candidate.  WYSIWYG.
| 
| * When you cycle among candidates, the current character and its
|   Unicode code point are shown in the mode line (provided user option
|   `icicle-help-in-mode-line-delay' is greater than zero.)
| 
| If you use a dedicated `*Completions*' frame, then the font used in
| `*Completions*' is the same as the frame from which you invoked
| completion.
| 
| If you use library `doremi-frm.el' then you can increase the font size
| for `*Completions*' dynamically using `C-x -'.
| 
| As an alternative to completing the Unicode name, you can input a
| number for the Unicode code point: a hexidecimal number or a number in
| hash notation: #o21430 for octal, #x2318 for hex, or #10r8984 for
| decimal.
| 
| Non-nil optional arg NAMES is an alist of names to use in place of the
| value returned by `icicle-ucs-names'.  It must have the same form as
| such a return value: (CHAR-NAME . CHAR-CODE).
`----

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bug#13206: 24.3.50; FR: insert-char must(?) show characters visually in completion buffer

[Jambunathan K]

OP here.  Closed.