Re: Making hide-ifdef-use-define-alist more user friendly

[storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm)]

Juan-Leon Lahoz Garcia <juanleon1@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> `hide-ifdef-use-define-alist', when invoked interactivelly, does not
> know how to complete to the symbols in alist `hide-ifdef-define-alist',
> despite it is mandatory to enter one of them.

Good point.

>
> --- hideif.el.ori	Mon Feb 21 09:33:58 2005
> +++ hideif.el	Mon Feb 21 10:08:52 2005
> @@ -1061,9 +1061,16 @@
>  	(cons (cons name (hif-compress-define-list hide-ifdef-env))
>  	      hide-ifdef-define-alist)))
>  
> -(defun hide-ifdef-use-define-alist (name)
> +(defun hide-ifdef-use-define-alist (&optional name)
>    "Set `hide-ifdef-env' to the define list specified by NAME."
> -  (interactive "SUse define list: ")
> +  (interactive)
> +  (unless name
> +    (setq name
> +          (completing-read "Use define list: "
> +                           (mapcar (lambda (arg)
> +                                     (cons (symbol-name (car arg)) t))
> +                                   hide-ifdef-define-alist) nil t)))
> +  (if (stringp name) (setq name (intern name)))
>    (let ((define-list (assoc name hide-ifdef-define-alist)))
>      (if define-list
>  	(setq hide-ifdef-env

This looked more complex than needed at first sight, so I tried this:

*** hideif.el	01 Sep 2003 17:45:35 +0200	1.48
--- hideif.el	21 Feb 2005 11:00:21 +0100	
***************
*** 958,964 ****
  
  (defun hide-ifdef-use-define-alist (name)
    "Set `hide-ifdef-env' to the define list specified by NAME."
!   (interactive "SUse define list: ")
    (let ((define-list (assoc name hide-ifdef-define-alist)))
      (if define-list
  	(setq hide-ifdef-env
--- 958,967 ----
  
  (defun hide-ifdef-use-define-alist (name)
    "Set `hide-ifdef-env' to the define list specified by NAME."
!   (interactive
!    (list (completing-read "Use define list: "
! 			  hide-ifdef-define-alist nil t)))
!   (if (stringp name) (setq name (intern name)))
    (let ((define-list (assoc name hide-ifdef-define-alist)))
      (if define-list
  	(setq hide-ifdef-env

But as you had already discovered, completing-read requires that
the alist keys are strings, not symbols.

Looking at try-completion and all-completions, there is a strange
inconsistency between alists, vectors, and hash tables:

In alists and hash tables, the key must be a string, while in vectors,
the key must be a symbol...  

The following patch changes this to accept both strings and symbols as
keys in all cases.  

With this, my simpler patch to hide-ifdef-use-define-alist works.

Any objections to installing this ?


*** minibuf.c	12 Dec 2004 23:25:36 +0100	1.278
--- minibuf.c	21 Feb 2005 11:15:49 +0100	
***************
*** 1257,1263 ****
  	  if (!EQ (bucket, zero))
  	    {
  	      elt = bucket;
! 	      eltstring = Fsymbol_name (elt);
  	      if (XSYMBOL (bucket)->next)
  		XSETSYMBOL (bucket, XSYMBOL (bucket)->next);
  	      else
--- 1257,1263 ----
  	  if (!EQ (bucket, zero))
  	    {
  	      elt = bucket;
! 	      eltstring = elt;
  	      if (XSYMBOL (bucket)->next)
  		XSETSYMBOL (bucket, XSYMBOL (bucket)->next);
  	      else
***************
*** 1284,1289 ****
--- 1284,1292 ----
  
        /* Is this element a possible completion? */
  
+       if (SYMBOLP (eltstring))
+ 	eltstring = Fsymbol_name (eltstring);
+ 
        if (STRINGP (eltstring)
  	  && SCHARS (string) <= SCHARS (eltstring)
  	  && (tem = Fcompare_strings (eltstring, zero,
***************
*** 1512,1518 ****
  	  if (!EQ (bucket, zero))
  	    {
  	      elt = bucket;
! 	      eltstring = Fsymbol_name (elt);
  	      if (XSYMBOL (bucket)->next)
  		XSETSYMBOL (bucket, XSYMBOL (bucket)->next);
  	      else
--- 1515,1521 ----
  	  if (!EQ (bucket, zero))
  	    {
  	      elt = bucket;
! 	      eltstring = elt;
  	      if (XSYMBOL (bucket)->next)
  		XSETSYMBOL (bucket, XSYMBOL (bucket)->next);
  	      else
***************
*** 1539,1544 ****
--- 1542,1550 ----
  
        /* Is this element a possible completion? */
  
+       if (SYMBOLP (eltstring))
+ 	eltstring = Fsymbol_name (eltstring);
+ 
        if (STRINGP (eltstring)
  	  && SCHARS (string) <= SCHARS (eltstring)
  	  /* If HIDE_SPACES, reject alternatives that start with space

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk