Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Dirk80]

When I'm in lisp-interaction-mode or emacs-lisp mode, i.e. I'm writing
emacs-lisp code in a buffer, then I would like to have the feature of
autocompletion when I'm pressing tab.

Example:
I'm typing insert-buf. Then the possible completions would be:
insert-buf
insert-buffer
insert-buffer-substring-no-properties
insert-buffer-substring-as-yank
insert-buffer-substring

The completion algorithm of the minibuffer can do this. But I would like to
have that feature when I'm programming code in a normal buffer.

My idea is the following:
I know that obarray contains the symbol table. So I wrote a fucntion which
inserts all symbols of obarray into a buffer. 

(defun insert-obarray-entries-into-temp-buffer (symbol)
  (save-excursion
    (set-buffer (get-buffer-create "*temp*"))
    (insert (concat (symbol-name symbol) "\n"))))

(mapatoms 'insert-obarray-entries-into-temp-buffer obarray)

Now I can use (dabbrev-expand nil). I have a smart-tab function in my .emacs
file. This function is bound to "tab" and calls (dabbrev-expand nil) when
point is for example at the end of a word.

Ok, I have more or less a solution. But I think that my solution is just a
workaround. And each time, when a new symbol is inserted into obarray I
would have to update the temporary created buffer.

How would you solve this problem or have you already solved it?

Thank you!

Greetings,
Dirk
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Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Xah Lee]

On May 6, 6:30 am, Dirk80 <d...@dirkundsari.de> wrote:
> When I'm in lisp-interaction-mode or emacs-lisp mode, i.e. I'm writing
> emacs-lisp code in a buffer, then I would like to have the feature of
> autocompletion when I'm pressing tab.

it is already implemented. The command is lisp-complete-symbol, the
shortcut is Meta+Tab.

Because Meta is often Alt, and Alt+Tab is used by the OS, so you can
do is press Esc Tab.

However, that is very inconvenient, so i created my own key.

(defun call-keyword-completion ()
  "Call the command that has keyboard shortcut M-TAB."
  (interactive)
  (call-interactively (key-binding (kbd "M-TAB")))
)

then give a shortcut to call-keyword-completion, e.g. on Dvorak
keyboard i have
(global-set-key (kbd "M-y") 'call-keyword-completion)

also, you might bind Meta+Shift+y for dabbrev-expand, which does
completion by words already in the buffer. (e.g. from your own
functions, variables)

I think this Meta+Tab conflict with Alt+Tab used by Windows, Mac,
Linux, is a major emacs usability problem. It forces people to make a
choice between a “emacs world” and all others. In the past when i
asked what other heavy emacs users do, seems they either have
completely alterted their keyboard shortcuts on their system so that
emacs's way prevales, or simply doesn't do anything about it, and just
press Esc Tab for completion.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Lennart Borgman]

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 7:05 PM, Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I think this Meta+Tab conflict with Alt+Tab used by Windows, Mac,
> Linux, is a major emacs usability problem. It forces people to make a
> choice between a “emacs world” and all others. In the past when i
> asked what other heavy emacs users do, seems they either have
> completely alterted their keyboard shortcuts on their system so that
> emacs's way prevales, or simply doesn't do anything about it, and just
> press Esc Tab for completion.

In the patched version of Emacs+EmacsW32 the Emacs Meta key can be
moved from Alt to the Windows keys. That is actually what I recommend
and use.

This of course conflicts with the normal use of the Windows keys. The
Windows keys are however possible to override with standard microsoft
api:s while overriding Alt+Tab is not possible that way.

Another reason for moving Emacs Meta from Alt to the Windows keys is
of course that the Alt key is used far more often than the Windows
keys.

Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Stefan Monnier]

> When I'm in lisp-interaction-mode or emacs-lisp mode, i.e. I'm writing
> emacs-lisp code in a buffer, then I would like to have the feature of
> autocompletion when I'm pressing tab.

Try (setq tab-always-indent 'complete) in Emacs>=23.2.


        Stefan

Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Dirk80]

Thank you for your answers. This already helped me alot.


Xah Lee-2 wrote:
> 
> it is already implemented. The command is lisp-complete-symbol, the
> shortcut is Meta+Tab.
> 

The lisp-complete-symbol function is nearly what I want. I don't know why
exactly, but I do not like the completion windows so much. I prefer the way
dabbrev-expand is doing it. Without using a completion window and just
rotating the possible completions when executing the command again.

Is there also existing a function like lisp-expand-symbol? Or do I have to
write it myself?

Thank you.

Greetings,
Dirk
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Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Andreas Politz]

Dirk80 <dirk@dirkundsari.de> writes:

> Thank you for your answers. This already helped me alot.
>
>
> Xah Lee-2 wrote:
>> 
>> it is already implemented. The command is lisp-complete-symbol, the
>> shortcut is Meta+Tab.
>> 
>
> The lisp-complete-symbol function is nearly what I want. I don't know why
> exactly, but I do not like the completion windows so much. I prefer the way
> dabbrev-expand is doing it. Without using a completion window and just
> rotating the possible completions when executing the command again.
>
> Is there also existing a function like lisp-expand-symbol? Or do I have to
> write it myself?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Greetings,
> Dirk

Try `hippie-expand'.

-ap

Re: Autocompletion of Emacs Lisp Symbols in Buffer

[Xah Lee]

On May 7, 2:45 am, Dirk80 <d...@dirkundsari.de> wrote:
> Thank you for your answers. This already helped me alot.
>
> Xah Lee-2 wrote:
>
> > it is already implemented. The command is lisp-complete-symbol, the
> > shortcut is Meta+Tab.
>
> The lisp-complete-symbol function is nearly what I want. I don't know why
> exactly, but I do not like the completion windows so much. I prefer the way
> dabbrev-expand is doing it. Without using a completion window and just
> rotating the possible completions when executing the command again.
>
> Is there also existing a function like lisp-expand-symbol? Or do I have to
> write it myself?
>
> Thank you.

Andreas mentioned hippie-expand, i haven't really used. There a few
other packages that do expansion. (see emacswiki.org )

might checkout this tutorial...

• How To Implement Keyword Completion in Emacs
  http://xahlee.org/emacs/elisp_keyword_completion.html

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄