Re: Isearch in dired

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

On Sat, Nov 08, 2008 at 12:33:34PM +0100, Lennart Borgman wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org> wrote:
> >> It would be useful for isearch in a dired buffer to match only file
> >> names by default.  I think this would be a good feature -- if we can
> >> come up with a natural way to request ordinary search of the entire
> >> buffer.

> >> Can anyone think of one?

> > I think the most convenient default behavior would be context-dependent,
> > i.e. match only file names when point is on the file name column - where
> > point stays most of the time: after opening a dired buffer and through
> > dired operations including navigation.  So it would be natural to do the
> > same for isearch - never let point leave the file name column.

> > To search of the entire buffer, the user can move point outside the
> > file name column.  Since this need is very rare, there's no hassle.

..., except you'd have to move point into that column to start.

> It is a nice idea if you know what is going on, but how do you tell
> the user what is going on? Changing the prompt is one possibility, but
> it is maybe not enough?

How about highlighting the file column (or lowlighting the rest of the
window) when you press C-\(M-\)?[rs]?

> (This reminds me again of that the search part of the menus in Emacs
> should include all search commands that comes with Emacs. And there
> should be an easy way to add other search commands there too.)

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).