Re: [mange@freemail.hu: grep-tree doesn't shell-quote-argument]

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

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> Btw, isn't it confusing that we have no less than 3 different
> commands (find-grep-dired, grep-find, and grep-tree) to do
> the same job?

Why?  They do it differently and each serves a different audience.

Eric Hanchrow wrote:
> Yes.	I've been using Emacs for 20 years, more or less, and only knew
> about grep-find until just now :-|

So what?

Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman.073@student.lu.se> writes:

> Too me it seems like merging them into one command could possibly save
> a lot of time for many people.

Huh?

Have you actually looked at them and what they do?

Command           Input             Output
----------------------------------------------------------------------
grep            Shell Command           List of matching lines
                grep ...

grep-find       Shell Command           List of matching lines
                find ... | grep ...     (recurses directories)

grep-tree       Regexp, Files, Dir      List of matching lines
                                        (recurses directorires)

find-grep-dired Dir, Regexp             List of matching FILES
                                        (recurses directorires)
                                        


So grep and grep-find are similar in the sense that they both
prompts the user for a SHELL COMMAND -- which is flexible but
low-level (IMO).

Like grep-find, grep-tree recurses directories listing matching lines,
but the interface it completely different, as grep-tree prompts
individually for regexp, files, and starting directory (with normal
directory name completion).  It also remembers your previous choice
for each parameter, so you can quickly repeat a previous search
starting in a different directory.  IMO, grep-tree is much more user
friendly than grep and grep-find (I use grep-tree all the time), 
while others obviously prefer the power of grep and grep-find.

find-grep-dired is completely different in the sense that it
doesn't list the matches, but rather presents a dired buffer
which lists the files which matches the regexp.


So they all serve a different purpose, and I don't see any way to
merge them ...or how doing so can "save a lot of time for many people".


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