Re: a suggested solution for better external' completion in certain emacs modes

[Nic Ferrier <nferrier@tapsellferrier.co.uk>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     What about history? Emacs' comint mode keeps quite a small history by
>     default and also doesn't save the history in a file, many Readline
>     programs do offer this.
>
> If you are using comint, you have all the history in Emacs.
> The history commands do not need to interact with the program.

But comint's history is not as functional as the history provided by
some Readline programs:

- Readline programs often keep their history over invocations, comint
  does not

- Readline programs often have very large line historys, but comint
  tends to have a small line history (I guess this is changeable but
  it would be expensive for all comint buffers)

Also, Emacs does not 'add value' to line historys... so if they could
be delegated (if the sub program does have Readline and history
support then use it) it would be a good thing I think.


>     So I was proposing a completly new way of communicating with
>     Readline. 
>
> I thought these command would go thru the pty to the subprogram.
> Are you thinking that Readline would talk to Emacs thru a socket?
> That's ok if you make it work.

No. I think they would go through the pty to the subprogram. I was
suggesting that Readline would stop seeing the pty as a pty and treat
it more like a stream.

I am examining ways to achieve better integration with programs that
offer sophisticated command line facilities.

I may have a muck around with comint to see if I can get it to use
Readline expansions in a generic way.


-- 
Nic Ferrier
http://www.tapsellferrier.co.uk