Re: pabbrev.el

[Toby Cubitt]

William Xu wrote:
> Toby Cubitt <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > Auto-completion-mode is only useful when the function finding the
> > completions can return results within a few tenths of a second
> > (i.e. faster than your typing speed). Dabbrev was never designed to be
> > that fast. 
>
> Hm, then this probably shouldn't be the first example on the wiki. Or it
> will fear away new users.

Completion-UI is a lisp package for package writers, not users. The 
examples are there to help package writers learn how to make use of it. 
The default settings are fairly sensible, with auto-completion-mode off 
by default. The Wiki is editable: if you think it's misleading, then 
change it!


> > The only completion functions I'm aware of that were designed to be fast
> > enough are those in the predictive-mode and pabbrev packages. Perhaps
> > this is because auto-completion makes most sense when the completion is
> > predictive.
>
> pabbrev is really very fast and impressive ! And its interface is nice,
> SPC as normal, TAB for completing/cycling candicates. This way pabbrev
> does its best not to interfere normal typing.
>
> In contrast, in predictive-mode, SPC does the completing, which makes it
> rather diffcult for blindly typing, i.e., fast typing.

..until your fingers get used to it, at which point typing becomes both 
faster (since you have to hit less keys) and more accurate (since the 
dictionaries only contain correct spellings). But these are just the 
default key bindings. If you don't like them, change them! This is Emacs 
we're talking about here ;-)

If you don't want to spend any time reading documentation and 
customization options before you can get the most out of predictive 
completion, I strongly recommend you use pabbrev. Predictive-mode is an 
ambitious, complex, highly customizable package that does a lot more 
than just predictive completion. Pabbrev is simpler, less ambitious, and 
much easier to use straight away.

Toby