Getting further information from describe-function

Getting further information from describe-function

[Deniz Dogan]

Hi, developers

I would like to write a little function which acts like the
completing-read of describe-function but the completion buffer should
use customizable faces which indicate whether what is completed to are
obsolote, macros, etc. One could even imagine using customizable
format strings for the output, possibly to be able to indicate e.g.
where the functions are defined. describe-function in its current
state is rather "dumb", simply using completing-read over obarray on
symbols that "are fboundp".

So to write this feature I had in mind...where do I start?

Thanks,
Deniz Dogan

Re: Getting further information from describe-function

[Juri Linkov]

> I would like to write a little function which acts like the
> completing-read of describe-function but the completion buffer should
> use customizable faces which indicate whether what is completed to are
> obsolote, macros, etc. One could even imagine using customizable
> format strings for the output, possibly to be able to indicate e.g.
> where the functions are defined. describe-function in its current
> state is rather "dumb", simply using completing-read over obarray on
> symbols that "are fboundp".
>
> So to write this feature I had in mind...where do I start?

It seems what you want is completions-annotations.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/

RE: Getting further information from describe-function

[Drew Adams]

> It seems what you want is completions-annotations.

Maybe - depends what you want.

You can also use text properties on completion candidates (propertized strings).

RE: Getting further information from describe-function

[Drew Adams]

> I would like to write a little function which acts like the
> completing-read of describe-function but the completion buffer should
> use customizable faces which indicate whether what is completed to are
> obsolote, macros, etc. One could even imagine using customizable
> format strings for the output, possibly to be able to indicate e.g.
> where the functions are defined. describe-function in its current
> state is rather "dumb", simply using completing-read over obarray on
> symbols that "are fboundp".
> 
> So to write this feature I had in mind...where do I start?

Icicles.  ;-)