From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stephen Eglen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: icomplete-mode vs. iswitchb Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 12:07:53 +0000 Organization: University of Cambridge, Maths Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1386850095 2929 80.91.229.3 (12 Dec 2013 12:08:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 12:08:15 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Dec 12 13:08:22 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr541-0001LH-JY for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:08:21 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35429 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr541-00046O-1X for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 07:08:21 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:35960) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr53t-00046A-2R for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 07:08:18 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr53n-0003Rf-2n for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 07:08:13 -0500 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:55463) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr53m-0003RK-SX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 07:08:07 -0500 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Vr53l-00017P-6n for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:08:05 +0100 Original-Received: from rgc.damtp.cam.ac.uk ([131.111.17.127]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:08:05 +0100 Original-Received: from S.J.Eglen by rgc.damtp.cam.ac.uk with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:08:05 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 43 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: rgc.damtp.cam.ac.uk User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:zg4Cj6LYvTM95kEyRvOa/RIHC6s= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:166328 Archived-At: > That's fine, but the reason why we've had iswitchb until now is because > apparently IDO was not a replacement, but rather another feature which > took iswtchb's and then added a host of other things. I disagree -- to most iswitchb/ido users, I am sure they regard ido as a replacement for iswitchb; as I show below you can easily get iswitchb behaviour with it. > > And this situation hasn't changed, so no, AFAIK, ido is not > a replacement for iswitchb. > > To put it some other way: where were you all in the last 10 years or so > that we've had iswitchb and ido, without complaining that we should mark > iswitchb as obsolete and replace it with ido? Well, I don't recall many complaints about ido vs iswitchb -- most people were happy to use one or the other. Probably more people use ido, as it offers more features. But I have just tested this: (setq ido-mode 'buffer) (ido-mode 1) and this is pretty much what iswitchb offers. There may be some edge-cases and minor visual differences, but most iswitchb users will probably cope! So why not just mark iswitchb as obsolete and recommend ido for those users? I have no problem with that. In fact, I suggested (perhaps privately to Kim, author of ido) several years ago we can do this. But as iswitchb hasn't need much maintenance (by me) over the years I've never found sufficient need to merge it. ido is favoured here: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-01/msg00528.html And, in the interests of balance, here is RMS's view against making iswitchb (or ido) on by default: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2008-03/msg02058.html ! Stephen