Re: Simple isearch concerns

[Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org>]

>> Along with the package mentioned by Thierry there is CTRLF[1].
>>
>> [1] https://github.com/raxod502/ctrlf
>
> I tried this package a few months ago, but still do not understand what 
> it does differently from isearch.
>

This is explained on [1].  I'm not sure I understand all arguments, but 
what I understood is:

"If you type any command that is not bound in Isearch, then you exit your 
search and run that command. This means editing your search query is 
awkward and unintuitive."  If you type, say, C-t during an isearch, 
isearch exits and transpose-chars is executed.

"Another issue is predictability. The behavior of C-g is hard to predict 
because it depends on not only what you have typed in what order, but also 
on the buffer contents and the state of the current search."  When isearch 
has found a match, C-g aborts isearch and returns to the point you were. 
But if isearch did not find a match, the first C-g removes the failing 
characters, and you have to type C-g again to abort isearch.

"The handling of wraparound exacerbates problems of predictability: the 
number of times you must type C-s to move to the next match is 
unpredictable"  If point is after the last occurrence of the string you 
isearch when you type C-s, a single C-s wraps around; otherwise you have 
to type C-s two times to wrap around.

"and the minibuffer prompt changes in several different and confusing ways 
during this process."  The prompt changes and can admittedly become a bit 
confusing, the longest one I'm aware of is the 61 character long "Failing 
overwrapped case-sensitive regexp I-search backward: ".