Re: Q: Is there a built-in way to read multiple file names?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net>
> Cc: mardani29@yahoo.es, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2024 17:18:33 +0000
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> I am wondering if `read-file-name' could be extended to read multiple
> >> file names at once.
> >
> > I think you are generalizing the wrong UI.  A good UI for specifying
> > several file names is not reading them one after the other, it is
> > marking the files you want to operate on, and then clicking GO.  Like
> > in Ibuffer, for example.
> 
> I 100% agree.
> That's what helm provides, say, for `completing-read-multiple'.
> But for `read-file-name' specifically, there is no way to extend the
> built-in completion.

We have Ibuffer and Dired (and other similar features), which
functions that return lists of marked entities.  That is what needs
to be used for multiple selections, not some loop over read-file-name
and its ilk.

> I wish that *completions* buffer allowed selecting multiple candidates
> at once when using `completing-read-multiple' or similar commands.

I think completion is the wrong framework for this purpose, because
the user might want to select files/buffers/whatever whose names don't
share anything in common.