Subject: bug#13333: 24.3.50; (emacs) `Minibuffer History'

From: Gregory Heytings <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:59:39 +0000

>>> You can think of this as moving through the "future history" list.
>>
>> "future history" is a misnomer.
>>
>>> There is no logical connection between the set of default values
>>
>> "default values" is a misnomer.
>>
>> There can be only one default value that it used when the user enters 
>> empty input in the minibuffer.  Other values are not "defaults".
>>
>> In most applications similar functionality is called "suggestions" 
>> where a drop-down list of suggestions is displayed while the user types 
>> a query into a text box.  This feature is documented at 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_suggest_drop-down_list
>>
>> Thus I propose to enhance the documentation by replacing the term 
>> DEFAULTS with (DEFAULT . SUGGESTIONS) where DEFAULT will retain its 
>> original meaning of the value returned for empty input and SUGGESTIONS 
>> is a list of suggestions available via `M-n'.
>
> I think this sounds like a good idea.  "Future history" is cute and all, 
> but it's not really helpful as a term -- especially when "suggestions" 
> is as clear as it is.
>
> Anybody with any comments here?
>

FWIW, I do not think this is a good idea.

Emacs is the only application I know which has a unified way to interact 
with history of past actions and suggestions for future actions.  The name 
"future history" is not only cute, it is also an excellent one, from a 
mnemonical viewpoint, to remember that the M-n is the key binding that 
should be used to access those suggestions.  What I would suggest instead 
is to add an explanation between parentheses that "future history" is what 
is called in some other applications "suggestions" (and possibly update 
the glossary accordingly).

The idea of replacing DEFAULT with (DEFAULT . SUGGESTIONS) is also not 
really optimal IMO.  The problem is that DEFAULT would not only be the 
value that is used when the user hits RET with an empty input, it is also 
the first value inserted when hitting M-n, that is, it is also the first 
SUGGESTION.  What I would suggest instead is to replace DEFAULTS with 
FUTURE-HISTORY, with an explanation that the first element of 
FUTURE-HISTORY is used when the user hist RET with an empty input.