Re: [External] : Re: Indicate better the current use of the echo area / minibuffer [was: Controlling Isearch from minibuffer]

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Thu, 13 May 2021 15:24:23 +0000
> From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
> Cc: "emacs-devel@gnu.org" <emacs-devel@gnu.org>,
>  "monnier@iro.umontreal.ca" <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>,
>  "kevin.legouguec@gmail.com" <kevin.legouguec@gmail.com>,
>  Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, "arstoffel@gmail.com" <arstoffel@gmail.com>,
>  Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> 
> > The echo area/minibuffer distinction comes up from time to time in
> > discussions with new users. I know that I had been confused for a while
> > with the Isearch behavior. The Isearch use of the echo area is
> > unexpected. Users expect to enter a search string into a separate input
> > form as is common in many other programs. In Emacs this input form is
> > the minibuffer.
> 
> That's a rather misleading way of portraying it.  Users used to other
> programs tend not to be familiar with incremental search, where point is
> not in "a separate input form" but in the buffer they're searching
> through.  There is no "separate input form".

That was true some years ago, but no longer is.  Many other editors
and browsers support incremental search nowadays, and at least some of
them, mostly browsers, indeed expect you to type into a special input
widget.

> I am worried that these suggestions for using the minibuffer will get
> implemented, and searching in Emacs will move from the delightfully
> lightweight feature we have at the moment to something awkward and
> sluggish, like most other programs' searching is.

This alternative UI might indeed be added some day, but only as one
option, and most probably not the default.  So don't you worry.