Delayed Typing Hints of Multi-Level Keyboard Shortcuts

Delayed Typing Hints of Multi-Level Keyboard Shortcuts

[Nordlöw]

I suggest an interaction hint improvement for the Emacs developers
that I believe would be very clever for all Emacs users from beginners
to experts:

Why not to make emacs, I guess in minibuffer, after a short delay,
*hint* the continuation of *all* multi-level keyboard shortcuts/
bindings?

This delay would of course be configurable defaulting to I guess one
second (that is what C-h uses).

This would make Emacs much more *exploreable* and thereby more
attractive for new users.

An example of this kind of hinting is already available in the help
(prefix key C-h) so I guess it should not be too difficult to
implement this generalization.

Does something like this already exists in Icicles perhaps, Drew
Adams?


Thanks in advance,
Nordlöw

RE: Delayed Typing Hints of Multi-Level Keyboard Shortcuts

[Drew Adams]

> I suggest an interaction hint improvement for the Emacs developers
> that I believe would be very clever for all Emacs users from beginners
> to experts:
> 
> Why not to make emacs, I guess in minibuffer, after a short delay,
> *hint* the continuation of *all* multi-level keyboard shortcuts/
> bindings?
> 
> This delay would of course be configurable defaulting to I guess one
> second (that is what C-h uses).
> 
> This would make Emacs much more *exploreable* and thereby more
> attractive for new users.
> 
> An example of this kind of hinting is already available in the help
> (prefix key C-h) so I guess it should not be too difficult to
> implement this generalization.
> 
> Does something like this already exists in Icicles perhaps, Drew
> Adams?

What you describe does not exist as such in Icicles. However, you can complete
any key sequence by hitting S-TAB. IOW, the help you are asking for is available
with Icicles, but only on demand, not after a delay, and the help is available
in *Completions*, not in the minibuffer.

For example, if you start with `C-x 5' and then hit `S-TAB', you are presented
with all completions of `C-x 5' (in *Completions*), from which you can choose
one to use. Each completion candidate includes not only the key suffix but also
the associated command (e.g. `f = find-file-other-frame', for prefix `C-x 5').
You can complete against (match) the key suffix or the command name, or both.

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_Nutshell_View#KeyCompletion