RE: Moving from Ido to Icicles

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> I use icicles with recentf, it works very  nicely, as you might
> expect. I also use icicles to navigate bookmarks (bookmark+) which
> then gives us best of all worlds.
> See http://www.emacswiki.org/Icicles_-_Bookmark_Enhancements
> 
> I was a big ido fan, but converted to icicles mainly for superior
> tag navigation.

I was on vacation for a few days, but here is a belated reply, to
add a bit to what Will mentioned.  (And yes, bookmarks are a good
way to access frequently used files.)

1. Yes, `icicle-recent-file' is a multi-command that makes use of
library `recentf.el' to give you access to recently used files.

It uses multi-completion, so you can match (1) the (absolute)
file names, (2) the file contents, or both.  With a prefix arg,
the candidates have a third multi-completion part, in the middle:
(3) the date of last modification - so you can match any
combination of name, date, and contents.

(If you use a prefix arg when you act on an individual candidate,
then you visit that file in read-only mode.  This includes
when you act on all matching candidates, i.e., open them all.)


2. Another way to access a persistent history of visited files
is to use library `savehist.el'.  You can customize option
`savehist-additional-variables' so that it includes
`file-name-history'.

Files visited in previous Emacs sessions are then available
using `M-p' during file-name completion.  With Icicles you can
complete against elements of the minibuffer history (e.g.,
`file-name-history').  You can use `M-h' or `M-pause' to do
this (they behave differently).  Completion is handier than
repeating `M-p' or `M-r'.

See http://www.emacswiki.org/Icicles_-_History_Enhancements