Subject: bug#15461: why do I need it

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 20:59:34 +0300

> Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 19:23:19 +0200
> From: Jarek Czekalski <[email-masked]>
> 
> > So I wonder what are the real-life use cases that motivated you to ask
> > for this change.  Is that only completion?
> 
> I like to have my environment comfortable. I often work with batch 
> files, sometimes they have long names. Whether I am in native windows 
> shell (cmd.exe) or in my previous editor (jedit) I am used to get the 
> batch file name completed after pressing tab. A requirement of typing 
> always the full name of a batch file is awkward.
> 
> You ask such a question that I am not sure what answer you expect.

I expected nothing more than the answer to the question.  Apologies if
the question was not clear enough.

Let me try to elaborate.

If the only use case where you need this is completion of executables,
an alternative solution could be to teach such completion to look in
the current buffer's default directory, on systems where that is
implicit.  This could be an easier solution than futzing with the
environment.

The disadvantage of adding something to the environment is that it
affects more than just your use case, and it also affects every
sub-process Emacs will run.  The broader the effect, the higher the
risk of unintended consequences (a.k.a. "bugs that we will introduce
while fixing this one").

It sounds like your problem is indeed limited to completion of
executable file names, which seems to suggest that a narrower, more
specific solution is possible.