From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs,gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs Subject: bug#1757: 23.0.60; completion DWIM too clever Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:10:26 -0800 Message-ID: <007901c96c44$9ba3f7c0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> References: <007601c96c3a$bba3d8b0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> Reply-To: Drew Adams , 1757@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1230837822 27069 80.91.229.12 (1 Jan 2009 19:23:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:23:42 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org To: "'Lennart Borgman'" , <1757@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com> Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jan 01 20:24:49 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1LITA0-0006Nv-HV for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:24:48 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:48204 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LIT8l-0007bT-C2 for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:31 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LIT8g-0007b0-Dm for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:26 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LIT8f-0007an-Hz for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:25 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=51279 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LIT8f-0007ad-42 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:25 -0500 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu ([138.23.92.77]:43272) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LIT8e-0008IR-Ih for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:24 -0500 Original-Received: from rzlab.ucr.edu (rzlab.ucr.edu [127.0.0.1]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-3) with ESMTP id n01JNMln007078; Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:23:22 -0800 Original-Received: (from debbugs@localhost) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id n01JK2mc005936; Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:20:02 -0800 X-Loop: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com Resent-From: "Drew Adams" Resent-To: bug-submit-list@donarmstrong.com Resent-CC: Emacs Bugs Resent-Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:20:02 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: owner@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com X-Emacs-PR-Message: followup 1757 X-Emacs-PR-Package: emacs X-Emacs-PR-Keywords: Original-Received: via spool by submit@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com id=B.12308370494721 (code B ref -1); Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:20:02 +0000 Original-Received: (at submit) by emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com; 1 Jan 2009 19:10:49 +0000 X-Spam-Bayes: score:0.5 Bayes not run. spammytokens:Tokens not available. hammytokens:Tokens not available. Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org (fencepost.gnu.org [140.186.70.10]) by rzlab.ucr.edu (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-3) with ESMTP id n01JAkpc004715 for ; Thu, 1 Jan 2009 11:10:47 -0800 Original-Received: from mail.gnu.org ([199.232.76.166]:58757 helo=mx10.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1LISvN-000648-3O for emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:09:41 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LISwO-000652-3O for emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:10:44 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet11.oracle.com ([148.87.113.123]:65293 helo=rgminet11.oracle.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LISwK-00064N-VB; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:10:41 -0500 Original-Received: from acsinet13.oracle.com (acsinet13.oracle.com [141.146.126.235]) by rgminet11.oracle.com (Switch-3.3.1/Switch-3.3.1) with ESMTP id n01JBvBQ026015 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:11:59 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt703.oracle.com (acsmt703.oracle.com [141.146.40.81]) by acsinet13.oracle.com (Switch-3.3.1/Switch-3.3.1) with ESMTP id n01JB1pK018421; Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:11:02 GMT Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/24.5.134.5) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:10:25 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: Thread-Index: AclsPoKA5y9CNkAcR6WpOdImkLTsKgAA+OzQ X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3350 X-Source-IP: acsmt703.oracle.com [141.146.40.81] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090203.495D1523.010A:SCFSTAT928724,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 1) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) Resent-Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:23:25 -0500 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:23664 gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs:23590 Archived-At: > >> I typed C-x b *d TAB and it offered me as completions `diary' > >> and `old', neither of which starts with a `*'. > >> > >> I typed C-x b *di TAB and it completed to `diary', which is not > >> even a completion of what I typed. > >> > >> It is extremely annoying to discard the user's input characters. > > > > I couldn't agree more. The is (the formerly optional) partial > > completion at work. It is now the default behavior to first try > > the traditional completion, and if that finds no matches, > > automatically try partial completion. > > Is perhaps the problem that partial completion does not respect the > user input (of *)? It respects it as a _wildcard_. This is a feature of partial completion. See `completion-pcm--string->pattern' and `completion-pcm--all-completions' in minibuffer.el. Stefan has decided that if your input cannot be completed literally, as a prefix, it should be completed as a wildcard pattern, using partial completion. That is the new default behavior. This takes away the useful negative feedback that your input has no literal prefix completion: [No match]. Instead of letting you immediately correct a simple typo (e.g. accidentally hitting `*' instead of some other char), you can end up needing to correct lots of characters (e.g. `diary', as a completion of `*di'). The problem is not that partial completion has a bug wrt *. The problem is that partial completion is being used as an automatic fallback by default. The assumption is that you always want to complete one way or the other - either by treating your input as a literal prefix, if possible, or by treating it as a wildcard expression, if literal prefix matching fails. This "extremely annoying" feature should be optional. Partial completion is one thing. Automatically slipping from prefix completion to partial completion is another thing. Either of these is annoying and inappropriate as the default behavior. And the automatic change of completing behavior is arguably more annoying and more confusing than plain partial completion.