Re: Simple minibuffer completion question

[Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de>]

bmaron2@hotmail.com writes:

>
> Lets say you're editing a file named reallylongfilename.foo. You want
> to save a copy and call it reallylongfilename2.foo.
>
> If I do a C-x C-w, emacs prompts me for the new file name. Now, how
> can I get it to insert the default file name (reallylongfilename.foo),
> but still allow me to edit the text? If i just press RET it submits
> the default name, not allowing me to add the '2'. TAB and SPC give me
> a list of all the files in the directory, so I still have to type out
> reallylongfilename.foo.

Not exactly, you only have to type the ambiguous part, TAB completes
the rest for you.  Most often one has to type only few chars and TAB.

> An analogous question is if I'm editing reallylongfilename.foo and I
> want to open reallylongfilename.bar. How can I do that without typing
> manually all of reallylongfilename?

Either with (1) M-p, or (2) typing the ambiguous part and then TAB, or
try (3) ido-mode.  With this mode you would just type "C-x C-f .bar"
and then you can select with C-s between all files ending in .bar.

-- 
    Best wishes

    H. Dieter Wilhelm
    Darmstadt, Germany