RE: key to yank text at point into minibuffer?

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

I wrote:

    2. Bind `M-.' to a list of two things: a) a list of alternative
    text-grabbing functions and b) a single function that grabs
    successive things (e.g. words). Either component could be nil,
    in which case that behavior would not be available. The default
    value could be this:

      ((symbol-grabber word-grabber line-grabber URL-grabber) word-grabber).

    3. If both components are present, one of them is the default, to be
    determined by a new user option.

    4. When you use `M-.', you always get the default behavior, as
    determined by the new option, unless you first use `C-u', in which
    case you get the alternate behavior.

    5. If you use a numeric arg, not just plain `C-u', then the numeric arg
    could specify the number of things to grab.  Using this, you could use
    `C-u 6 M-. M-.' to grab 6 of whatever kind of thing the second grabbing
    function grabs.

FWIW, there is now an implementation of this here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/icicles.el. See command
`icicle-insert-string-at-point' (`M-.') and options
`icicle-thing-at-point-functions' and `icicle-default-thing-insertion'. It
was a bit trickier than I expected.

To try it, just load the file. During minibuffer input, try repeated `M-.'
with or without a prefix arg.

I made one change: the second component in #2 is a function that moves
forward a thing, not a function that grabs a thing. That's easier for
accumulating things. See the doc string of
`icicle-thing-at-point-functions'.