Show all completions based on substring search

Show all completions based on substring search

[Rudolf Adamkovič]

Howdy smart folks!

I noticed that Emacs (v29, 5b9b393c61) does not always show all
completions, the way I would like.

Given

  1. emacs -Q
  2. C-h f
  3. warning TAB,

I get the following 3 completions:

  warning-numeric-level
  warning-suppress-p
  warnings-suppress

Instead, I would like to see all candidates that contain the substring
`warning', such as `display-warning'.

I noticed that if I move the point to the beginning of the word
`warning' and type `TAB' there, then I get all candidates that contain
the substring `warning', including `display-warning'.

How can make the completion system *always* do this on `TAB', without
moving the point?  (Or using word completion, or typing the Orderless
separator, or anything else like that.)

I tried to set the `completion-styles' to the various documented values,
but I never seem to get all candidates I expect.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Rudy
-- 
"Logic is a science of the necessary laws of thought, without which no
employment of the understanding and the reason takes place."
-- Immanuel Kant, 1785

Rudolf Adamkovič <salutis@me.com> [he/him]
Studenohorská 25
84103 Bratislava
Slovakia

Re: Show all completions based on substring search

[Stephen Berman]

On Wed, 09 Nov 2022 22:54:04 +0100 Rudolf Adamkovič <salutis@me.com> wrote:

> Howdy smart folks!
>
> I noticed that Emacs (v29, 5b9b393c61) does not always show all
> completions, the way I would like.
>
> Given
>
>   1. emacs -Q
>   2. C-h f
>   3. warning TAB,
>
> I get the following 3 completions:
>
>   warning-numeric-level
>   warning-suppress-p
>   warnings-suppress
>
> Instead, I would like to see all candidates that contain the substring
> `warning', such as `display-warning'.
>
> I noticed that if I move the point to the beginning of the word
> `warning' and type `TAB' there, then I get all candidates that contain
> the substring `warning', including `display-warning'.
>
> How can make the completion system *always* do this on `TAB', without
> moving the point?  (Or using word completion, or typing the Orderless
> separator, or anything else like that.)

Typing `*warning TAB' works for me - after setting
`completion-category-overrides' to ((buffer (styles substring)) (file
(styles substring))).  With -Q that variable's value is nil, and there
typing `*warning TAB' immediately completes to `*-warning', so another
TAB does not show function names beginning with `warning-'.  That
setting overrides for buffer and file name completion is apparently
needed for function name completion is not something I expected...

Steve Berman

Re: Show all completions based on substring search

[Rudolf Adamkovič]

Rudolf Adamkovič <salutis@me.com> writes:

> I tried to set the `completion-styles' to the various documented
> values, but I never seem to get all candidates I expect.

[Answering my own question.]

I asked @oantolin (Omar Antolín Camarena) on GitHub [1].

His insightful reply solved my problem instantly:

> My first instinct is that it doesn't sound like orderless is doing the
> matching here, but some other completion style is getting first crack
> instead. What values of completion-category-defaults and
> completion-category-overrides are you using?

Rudy

[1] https://github.com/oantolin/orderless/issues/128

-- 
"Simplicity is complexity resolved."
-- Constantin Brâncuși, 1876-1957

Rudolf Adamkovič <salutis@me.com> [he/him]
Studenohorská 25
84103 Bratislava
Slovakia