Re: describe-char should display the character's Unicode name

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:31:43 -0400 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote: 

SM> Actually, we should have completion for input methods.  It would be handy
SM> for things like the TeX input method.  Currently if I hit TAB after \a
SM> I do get some sort of "list of possible completions", but it's displayed
SM> as a tree which is kind of hard to read and I can select one of them
SM> from the list.  Also TAB after \rig doesn't complete to \right as normal
SM> completion would.

It doesn't work for cyrillic-translit, for example, so I'd guess it
requires core changes to the quail code.  The other issue is that TAB
has a meaning while you're typing, so if you type /'TAB in
cyrillic-translit, you'd get two completion candidates (/' and /'')
instead of ’ followed by the TAB character.  I think that's less useful
to the user, since hitting TAB is so common in all Emacs modes.

Regardless I agree that it's useful to do this, because so many quail
input methods have more mappings than an user can easily remember.

Maybe it could be bound to M-TAB.  I don't know if it can be a callable
function, because it needs to be incorporated into the quail keystroke
flow.  

I also think Unicode characters in particular can use an
`ucs-insert-by-name' function instead of or in addition to an input
method, because it's such a useful operation and there are so many of
them.  The user wouldn't have to customize anything or call anything
complex, either, he'd just call that function and work with the
completion candidate list in the standard Emacs way--no special
keystrokes.  Input methods are a bit harder to customize and use (but of
course, they have many advantages over functions).

Ted