Re: Need an enabler for a bad habit.

[Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@gmail.com>]

William Case <billlinux@rogers.com> writes:

> Essentially, yes.  But I have always thought what you have called
> the echo area was the mini-buffer in emacs and I don't even need the
> "M-x prompt".  I just want my cursor blinking in the very first
> field/column of the echo area.  I will type the command or
> accelerator keys that I need after the cursor is placed.  I would
> expect that the cursor would remain at the end of the command line
> until I push Enter.

It's interesting to learn how other wants to use this wonderful tool!

How about this then:

 $ emacs -Q
 C-x 2 ; split in two windows
 C-x 0 ; move to bottom window
 M-x eshell RET ; start eshell

Now, resize the window containing the eshell buffer so that it's only
a few lines high (three lines seems to be the minimum before the
windows is deleted).

Now you have something similar to what you want in that you can type
all commands, including their arguments. For example, at the eshell
prompt:

 $ find-file foo RET

Will open up the file foo, or create an empty buffer. Voila!

The only problem with this approach is that commands that display a
prompt when called interactively will not work like you expect. For
example, only typing `find-file' and RET will not work. It will
complain about missing arguments (because it is called
non-interactively behind the scenes).

Of course, eshell is also a complete shell, being able to call emacs
functions is just an extra feature that is really nice.