Re: patches for etags and shell-command

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

>     I have two patches today; the first one changes shell-command so
>     that the default interactive argument is the current buffer's filename.
>
> Is the idea that you type M-n to bring the current buffer's filename
> into the minibuffer, and then you type the rest of the command around
> it?  Access to that file name would be useful, but at the same time,
> this interface would be rather inconvenient to use.

I think using M-n to insert the buffer filename is very useful once users
know about this.  So the manual should mention it after installing.

And also M-! invoked in dired could insert a list of all marked files to
the minibuffer.  This could be used as a replacement of `!' and a special
character `*' surrounded by whitespace.  It is more reliable for users
to see the complete list of marked files in the minibuffer before running
the command than remembering all rules of using `*', `?' and whitespace
in the command run with `!' in dired.

>     This patch corrects a bug in etags that causes completion to only
>     consider the tags in a single TAGS buffer.  With the match tag
>     completion will consider tags from all the active TAGS buffers.
>
> That seems like a clean extension.  I will forward it to the etags
> maintainer.

I haven't tested this patch, but after looking at it I noticed that it
deletes the initial message:

  (message "Making tags completion table for %s..." buffer-file-name)

but retains the finishing message:

  (message "Making tags completion table for %s...done" buffer-file-name)

I think both are necessary.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/