Re: using pcomplete for comint.el/shell.el

["Stefan Monnier" <monnier+gnu/emacs@RUM.cs.yale.edu>]

> One of the design goals was to avoid loading pcomplete unless the user
> actually used the completion facilities.  So this made things a little
> bit tricky.  I've attached the patch to shell.el to implement this. 
> Other modes will have to do something very similar.  
> 
> Or would it be better if we just unconditionally required pcomplete.el
> for shell.el?
> 
> After this is implemented, we can just remove a lot of cruft in
> comint.el.

Sounds good.  On a related note, I really would like it if we could
make a `read-shell-command' that provides pcomplete completion for
things like M-! and friends.

> Also, one issue to consider is that this will break backwards
> compatibility with modes deriving from comint.

Could you expand on that ?  What kind of breakage ?
Can it be avoided ?


	Stefan

PS: I currently use the following quick-and-ugly hack for `shell-command':



--- simple.el	6 Feb 2002 15:08:45 -0000	1.520
+++ simple.el	15 Feb 2002 22:47:39 -0000
@@ -1135,6 +1152,20 @@
 is run interactively.  A value of nil means that output to stderr and
 stdout will be intermixed in the output stream.")
 
+(defun minibuffer-shell-complete ()
+  "Complete current minibuffer input as a shell command."
+  (interactive)
+  (require 'shell)
+  (pcomplete-shell-setup)
+  (let ((comint-dynamic-complete-functions shell-dynamic-complete-functions))
+    (call-interactively 'comint-dynamic-complete)))
+
+(defvar minibuffer-local-shell-completion-map
+  (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
+    (set-keymap-parent map minibuffer-local-map)
+    (define-key map "\t" 'minibuffer-shell-complete)
+    map))
+
 (defun shell-command (command &optional output-buffer error-buffer)
   "Execute string COMMAND in inferior shell; display output, if any.
 With prefix argument, insert the COMMAND's output at point.
@@ -1186,7 +1217,7 @@
 specifies the value of ERROR-BUFFER."
 
   (interactive (list (read-from-minibuffer "Shell command: "
-					   nil nil nil 'shell-command-history)
+					   nil minibuffer-local-shell-completion-map nil 'shell-command-history)
 		     current-prefix-arg
 		     shell-command-default-error-buffer))
   ;; Look for a handler in case default-directory is a remote file name.
@@ -1399,8 +1430,9 @@
 		 ;; Do this before calling region-beginning
 		 ;; and region-end, in case subprocess output
 		 ;; relocates them while we are in the minibuffer.
-		 (setq string (read-from-minibuffer "Shell command on region: "
-						    nil nil nil
+		 (setq string (read-from-minibuffer
+			       "Shell command on region: "
+			       nil minibuffer-local-shell-completion-map nil
 						    'shell-command-history))
 		 ;; call-interactively recognizes region-beginning and
 		 ;; region-end specially, leaving them in the history.


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