bug#23484: 25.1.50; undo doesn't work properly in xref-query-replace-in-results

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 05/11/2016 11:48 PM, Juri Linkov wrote:

> > You're probably right. We could provide a separate command with that
> > advanced feature (or only use ask for FROM with prefix argument). We would
> > still have `.*' under the covers in the default case, though.
>
> What is the purpose of asking FROM?  If to be able to replace
> a substring of the original xref search string, then anyway it's
> inconvenient for the user to type a part of the already typed string
> again, e.g. after searching with xref for the string “abracadabra”,
> pressing ‘r’ requires typing a substring “abracadabr”, etc.

See the quote above from my previous message.

> More useful would be to prefill the original string in the minibuffer
> (here INITIAL-CONTENTS of read-from-minibuffer is justified)
> for easy editing (removing parts of the xref search string).

Again: we don't have the access to the "original string", and there 
might not have been one.

> And then why limit to only boundaries of matches?  The user sees
> a list of matching lines in the *xref* buffer.  Let's allow the users
> to replace any text within the displayed matching lines (WYSIWYG).

It's not something I've ever had an urge to do, but sure, the more 
features the better.

However, how would you allow doing this *without* losing the ability to 
replace the matches and just the matches? That should be the default choice.