RE: isearch multiple buffers

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

> I think users should be aware of the active multi-buffer search, so moving
> to another buffer will not be a surprise.  There are two places where this
> indication can be added: in the mode line as a minor mode "lighter"
string,
> or/and as the prefix/suffix of the isearch message, e.g.:
>
> I-search: search_string [Repeat for next buffer]
> Multi-I-search: search_string [Repeat for next buffer]
> X-I-search: search_string [Repeat for next buffer]
> X-search: search_string [Repeat for next buffer]

Sorry if this is irrelevant (I haven't been following this thread) -

Looking briefly at the first message in the thread, I see
`isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function', which a user (or library) could
presumably define. And I see that that variable is set to
`change-log-isearch-next-buffer' for use with change logs - OK. I don't see
any other code that deals with defining the set of buffers to be searched.
(Again, I haven't followed closely, so I might have missed it.)

Is there no way for a user to interactively choose the buffers to search? If
so, how about at least letting a user search, say, all of the buffers marked
(with `>') in the Buffer List (C-x C-b), in the order they currently appear
in that list? That is, have the default value of
`isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' be a function that provides this
behavior.

I think that if users could easily choose the buffers and the order (using
Buffer List and perhaps in other ways too), this would be more useful, and
users would be less surprised by the behavior.

Buffer List already offers one way to select buffers and order them. And if
this were available, it might also serve as an incentive to have one or more
buffer-menu commands that mark buffers according to a regexp - similar to
what `dired-mark-files-regexp' does.