Re[2]: IDE features: M-x find-grep

[Eric M. Ludlam]

>>> "Lennart Borgman (gmail)" <address@hidden> seems to think that:
>
>
>Eric M. Ludlam wrote:
>>>>> Juri Linkov <address@hidden> seems to think that:
>>>>     Yes, I use to say that they should be in the Edit menu every time we
>>>>     discuss this ... ;-)
>>>>
>>>>     Seriously, they are very useful and I see no reason not to put them
>>>>     there. And `occur' and `multi-occur' should be there too, of course.
>>>>
>>>> There are lots of commands that are "worth putting in the menu" if we
>>>> judge by their usefulness.  But if we put them all in the menu it will
>>>> be so big it is inconvenient to use.  So arguing that "this command is
>>>> worth including" is not a good way to think about the question.
>>> The menu is not necessarily flat.  Using submenus it would be possible
>>> to organize most useful commands in a convenient way.  For instance,
>>> the "Search" menu could have submenus "Search files" for the grep family
>>> of commands, and "Search buffers" for the occur family of commands.
>> 
>> A better option is that the menu item might just be "find".  Instead
>> of a singular minibuffer prompt to a specific grep command, a buffer
>> explaining different grep options could be provided.  The cursor lands
>> on a text widget, and then the users types in the expression, and then
>> choses the right type of grep/find command from a selection of
>> buttons.  An expert Emacs user would, of course, just type M-x
>> my-favorite-grep-command RET, but for a new user, this would cover all
>> the bases in one menu item.
>
>One drawback of this might be that it is harder to learn which commands 
>there are. Maybe this can be cured by showing the command to carry out 
>on that page.

Indeed.  You would have half a screen to provide as much information
as needed, such as:

--------------
Find: Enter string to search for:

 [-!-                       ] <- gray widget here

[ occur ] - Search this buffer [more]
[ multi-occur ] - Search many buffers [more]

Arguments and Files for Search:

 [-!-                       ] <- gray widget here too

 [ grep ] - use grep to search files [more]
 [ lgrep ] - use grep to search for regexp [more]
 [ find-grep ] - Search files specified by find [more]

-----------------

Not that I've used all these functions.

Eric

-- 
          Eric Ludlam:                       address@hidden
   Siege: www.siege-engine.com          Emacs: http://cedet.sourceforge.net