Re: Feedback on fido-mode

["João Távora" <joaotavora@gmail.com>]

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Many thanks for the feedback, I will read it carefully as soon as
possible.

Please be aware that fido-mode is really Icomplete-mode emulating _some_
of ido-mode's features. It's likely that the emulation will get better in
the future
or even surpass ido-mode in features. But in any case, it's _not_ an
emulation
of Ivy-mode (if that's what you are after in some way).

Anyway, Eli, assuming some of these complaints are easy to fix and can
be fixed exclusively in fido-mode's code, what are your thoughts patching
it up in emacs-27?  Or is it too late for that? I'd say "it's too late"
myself,
but I'd like to hear your opinion.

Thanks,
João

On Sat, Mar 7, 2020 at 3:17 PM Adam Porter <adam@alphapapa.net> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Seeing João's recent message about Fido reminded me of it, and since I'm
> testing Emacs 27+ for the first time lately, I gave it a try.  It was
> not quite as useful or easy-to-use as I expected, so I thought maybe I
> should send some feedback.  Of course, I'm not much of an ido nor
> icomplete user, so maybe I'm missing something basic.
>
> I've been testing Bufler [0] with Andrea's native-comp branch.  With
> bufler-mode enabled, I enabled fido-mode, and here's how it went:
>
> 1.  M-x bufler-switch-buffers.  This presents the following completions
> list, as expected (I hope these lines don't wrap):
>
>   Possible completions are:
>   *Help/Info* » *Help*
>   *Special* » **Special** » *Warnings*
>   *Special* » **Special** » *scratch*
>   *Special* » **Special** » *Messages*
>   *Special* » completion-list-mode » *Completions*
>   *Special* » Custom-mode » *Customize Group: Icomplete*
>   *Special* » Custom-mode » *Customize Apropos*
>   *Special* » apropos-mode » *Apropos*
>   *Special* » bufler-list-mode » *Bufler*
>   Dir: ~/.emacs.d/ » Dir: /home/test/.emacs.d/ » emacs-lisp-mode » init.el
>
> 2.  I want to switch to the init.el buffer (the last candidate), so I
> type "init", expecting it to become the selected (i.e. first) candidate.
> Instead, the completions list shows the following choices, and init.el
> is not the first one, even though it's the only candidate that matches
> the input as a substring:
>
>   Possible completions are:
>   *Special* » completion-list-mode » *Completions*
>   Dir: ~/.emacs.d/ » Dir: /home/test/.emacs.d/ » emacs-lisp-mode » init.el
>
> I see the letters that spell "init" highlighted in the first candidate,
> even though none of them are sequential in it.
>
> 3.  I want to select the last completion candidate, so I try the
> following:
>
>   - "C-n".  Minibuffer shows: "[End of buffer]"
>   - "M-n".  Minibuffer shows: "*Help/Info* » *Help* (No matches)"
>   - "TAB".  Result: expanded completion list, selected candidate
>                     unchanged.
>   - "C-h m", hoping to find out what the Fido keybindings are so I can
>     select the candidate.  Result: A *Help* buffer showing minor-mode
>     information, but nothing about Fido or any keybindings in the
>     minibuffer.
>
> At this point I'm not sure what Fido provides over Ido or Icomplete
> (though, again, I am not an expert on either of those, since I mostly
> use Helm and sometimes Ivy).  I'm sure it does something useful, of
> course, but from the perspective of a user new to it, I don't understand
> it yet.
>
> 4.  I happen to notice that if I type a ".", that causes the init.el
> candidate to become the sole candidate.  Deleting the "." returns the
> "*Completions*" candidate and causes it to be the selected one again.
>
> 5.  Having recently rediscovered the completion-styles option (remember,
> I mostly use Helm ;), I wonder if adding the "substring" style will
> help.  So I add it to the end of the completion-styles list and try
> again.  It makes no difference: with input "init", the init.el candidate
> is still at the end of the list and not selected.  I try putting
> "substring" at the front of completion-styles, but that also changes
> nothing.
>
> 6.  I see there's a new "flex" completion style, so I try that at the
> front of completion-styles.  Again, it makes no difference: with input
> "init", the init.el candidate is not selected, while the "*Special* »
> completion-list-mode » *Completions*" candidate is.
>
> At this point, I feel like I must be missing something or doing
> something wrong.  When I type "init", and only one of the candidates
> matches that substring, it seems like that should be the selected
> candidate.  And it seems like it should be easier to discover the
> keybinding to choose the next candidate.
>
> 7.  I disable fido-mode and enable ivy-mode.  I run "M-x
> bufler-switch-buffer" again and type "init".  The init.el candidate is
> the only candidate presented for that input, so I can hit RET to select
> it.
>
> So, whether all this indicates a PEBKAC, or a suboptimal default
> completion experience, I'm not sure.  Maybe a little of both.  I think
> that, generally, it would be helpful if Emacs's default completion
> experience were closer to what Ivy provides (though not exactly with
> Ivy's default settings, as I find its TAB binding a bit confounding, but
> that's beside the point).
>
> I hope this feedback is helpful.  Thanks to João and others for your
> work on Emacs and Fido.
>
> 0: https://github.com/alphapapa/bufler.el
>
>
>

-- 
João Távora

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