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

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

Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> writes:

> Nic Ferrier <nferrier@tapsellferrier.co.uk> writes:
>
>> So I was proposing a completly new way of communicating with
>> Readline. 
>
> You mean, a way where readline doesn't read from stdin or from the
> terminal?  Readline could open a Unix domain socket, I guess.

The communication channel doesn't matter. It's what Readline does with
it that counts.

I was proposing having a new mode where Readline reads *commands* from a
stream, instead of keydata.

Right now what Readline does is this:

- read a character (or a keypress) from the input
- lookup the command the key is bound to
- execute the command

I was proposing an alternative communication system which would go
like this:

- read a command name and some arguments from the input
- execute the command

What rms is saying is that one could adapt the current Readline
communication channel to break out of the normal reading and switch
into the new mode. Maybe he's right. I'm not sure if it wouldn't be
more complicated to manage the state of the current line once commands
were being sent.

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