Re: Completions in Semantic

[Stefan Monnier]

>> You mean like lisp-complete-symbol but modal?

> Yes, that's what I meant, but in light of your simplified description, I
> suppose it doesn't matter much.  If there was a single function like
> 'completing-read' that took arguments to control what proposed text
> after the cursor was, I suppose it wouldn't matter what happened
> underneath.  I used overlays and overlay keymaps.

> You could try semantic-complete-analyze-inline on something that needs
> completing to see the effect I was going for.  It should work for Lisp
> or C code.

> I would expect designing such a thing would be challenging since the
> rules for what is before the cursor is a bit vague and language
> specific, so it might belong in a tool like Semantic.

We have `symbol-complete' although I'm not very happy about its API.
But something along thses lines would be good.  When I rewrite the
minibuffer completion code I tried to make it possible to use it in
non-minibuffer contexts, so for example lisp-complete-symbol nowadays
uses minibuffer-complete internally.

I also intend to consolidate the comint completion this way, tho it's
more difficult because its current UI is slightly different.  Part of
the difficulty is how to determine when the "completion is done" so as
to know when to pop-down the *Completions* buffer (if any).  Maybe the
best option is to pop-down *Completions* eagerly ("all the time").


        Stefan