GNU bug report logs - #25441
26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?

Previous Next

To add a comment to this bug, you must first unarchive it, by sending
a message to control AT debbugs.gnu.org, with unarchive 25441 in the body.
You can then email your comments to 25441 AT debbugs.gnu.org in the normal way.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 19:02:03 +0100

In *scratch*, write

(defun foo? ())

and hit C-j to evaluate the definition.  Then, try to display the help
screen of foo? using C-h f foo? RET.  The minibuffer won't let you enter
? or auto-complete foo to foo?, even though ? can be part of a symbol.
Escaping the ? with a backslash also doesn't work.

This is especially annoying for libraries containing many Scheme-style
predicates, such as 'f' and 's'.


In GNU Emacs 26.0.50.28 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.10.8)
 of 2017-01-13 built on localhost
Repository revision: d018843e0e8065b1c9de9474521db069e1aa0025
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11501000
System Description:	Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

Configured using:
 'configure --with-modules --enable-checking
 --enable-check-lisp-object-type 'CFLAGS=-ggdb3 -O0''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG SOUND GSETTINGS NOTIFY GNUTLS FREETYPE XFT ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 MODULES

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message subr-x puny seq byte-opt gv
bytecomp byte-compile cl-extra help-mode cconv cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib
dired dired-loaddefs format-spec rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec
password-cache epa derived epg epg-config gnus-util rmail rmail-loaddefs
mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils
mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr
mail-utils time-date mule-util tooltip eldoc electric uniquify
ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel term/x-win x-win
term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list replace newcomment text-mode elisp-mode lisp-mode
prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow isearch timer select
scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
term/tty-colors frame cl-generic cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang
vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932
hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic
chinese composite charscript case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help
simple abbrev obarray minibuffer cl-preloaded nadvice loaddefs button
faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64
format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote inotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty
make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 97756 7990)
 (symbols 48 20220 1)
 (miscs 40 331 131)
 (strings 32 18024 4482)
 (string-bytes 1 592939)
 (vectors 16 14091)
 (vector-slots 8 472914 7079)
 (floats 8 181 13)
 (intervals 56 218 0)
 (buffers 976 12)
 (heap 1024 20514 959))

-- 
Google Germany GmbH
Erika-Mann-Straße 33
80636 München

Registergericht und -nummer: Hamburg, HRB 86891
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Hamburg
Geschäftsführer: Matthew Scott Sucherman, Paul Terence Manicle

Diese E-Mail ist vertraulich.  Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind,
leiten Sie diese bitte nicht weiter, informieren Sie den Absender und löschen
Sie die E-Mail und alle Anhänge.  Vielen Dank.

This e-mail is confidential.  If you are not the right addressee please do not
forward it, please inform the sender, and please erase this e-mail including
any attachments.  Thanks.

Message #8 received at 25441 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> linux-m68k.org>
To: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 25441 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25441: 26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 19:08:54 +0100

On Jan 13 2017, Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> and hit C-j to evaluate the definition.  Then, try to display the help
> screen of foo? using C-h f foo? RET.  The minibuffer won't let you enter
> ? or auto-complete foo to foo?, even though ? can be part of a symbol.
> Escaping the ? with a backslash also doesn't work.

Use C-q to insert any character.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab <at> linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Message #13 received at 25441-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com>
To: 25441-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#25441: 26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 18:07:52 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com> schrieb am Fr., 13. Jan. 2017 um
19:04 Uhr:

>
> In *scratch*, write
>
> (defun foo? ())
>
> and hit C-j to evaluate the definition.  Then, try to display the help
> screen of foo? using C-h f foo? RET.  The minibuffer won't let you enter
> ? or auto-complete foo to foo?, even though ? can be part of a symbol.
>

I've just found that the Emacs manual documents this behavior (? prints a
list of possible completions). Given that ? can only have one function, and
the current one does make sense, this behavior is rather a design choice
than a bug. Closing.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #16 received at 25441 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> users.sourceforge.net>
To: 25441 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#25441: 26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 14:16:43 -0500

tag 25441 notabug
quit

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 1:07 PM, Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com> schrieb am Fr., 13. Jan. 2017 um
> 19:04 Uhr:
>>
>>
>> In *scratch*, write
>>
>> (defun foo? ())
>>
>> and hit C-j to evaluate the definition.  Then, try to display the help
>> screen of foo? using C-h f foo? RET.  The minibuffer won't let you enter
>> ? or auto-complete foo to foo?, even though ? can be part of a symbol.
>
>
> I've just found that the Emacs manual documents this behavior (? prints a
> list of possible completions). Given that ? can only have one function, and
> the current one does make sense, this behavior is rather a design choice
> than a bug. Closing.

For the record, this can be changed by unbinding
`minibuffer-completion-help' from `minibuffer-local-completion-map':

(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map "?" nil)

Message #21 received at 25441-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com>, 25441-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: RE: bug#25441: 26.0.50; Can't autocomplete symbol names ending in ?
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 13:29:12 -0800 (PST)

> I've just found that the Emacs manual documents this behavior
> (? prints a list of possible completions).

Yes.  It's a really dumb design, IMHO.  I've argued for years
now that characters such as SPC and ? and C-j (newline) should
be self-inserting during completion.

After several decades, SPC was finally made self-inserting for
file-name completion (only).  Progress is slow...

Completion - ESPECIALLY `completing-read' as opposed to
`read-file-name' - is completely _general_.  There should be
no assumption that completion candidates do not contain spaces
or question marks or newline chars.  That's just silly (IMHO).

And making users use `C-q' to insert a space char is akin to
medieval torture - because it is completely unnecessary.
 

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.