Re: Xref completion

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 18.11.2020 20:47, João Távora wrote:

> I'd just like to note that in certain applications (like SLY/SLIME where 
> this request
> hails from), sometimes xrefs are grouped not by file, but by type (a 
> symbols's
> references includes "who sets", "who calls", "who reads", and so on) . So
> if possible, and in general, this type of solution should be thought as
> "prepend/append group name".  There can even be multiple grouping
> strategies.

We don't currently support group nesting, do we? I'm not sure how this 
can work without showing the file name or an equivalent substitute (like 
the package name) in the group. Does the file name go in each item's 
summaries?

In any case, we're currently discussing xref-show-definitions-function, 
and not xref-show-xrefs-function.

It's only used for the results of xref-find-definitions, so "who calls" 
and "who reads" won't be there. Only "who sets/defines".

> But one can also think about: select group first, then item within group.

I feel that might be under-utilizing the fuzzy matching capabilities of 
the existing completion frameworks: it should be usually quicker to 
match on both in one step.

OTOH, we should create a shortcut for the case when every group contains 
only one element: then completion would only show the group names 
(meaning file/package names), without summaries. That might work well in 
certain environments (like Java?).