Subject: bug#48764: mini-buffer completion

From: "Basil L. Contovounesios" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2021 23:50:42 +0100

[email-masked] writes:

>> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2021 at 8:46 AM
>> From: "Basil L. Contovounesios" <[email-masked]>
>> To: [email-masked]
>> Cc: "Lars Ingebrigtsen" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
>> Subject: bug#48764: mini-buffer completion
>>
>> [email-masked] writes:
>>
>> > How about mini-buffer entries that require user writing a string.  How would
>> > a user figure out what to do?
>> >
>> > Is there any information about basic navigation keys for mini-buffer input in the manual?
>>
>> Does the node (info "(emacs) Minibuffer History")[1] in the Emacs manual
>> count?  FWIW, it can be found through index entries such as 'minibuffer
>> history', 'M-n (minibuffer history)', 'DOWN (minibuffer history)', etc.
>
> We are not really talking about mini-buffer history, but mini-buffer input.

The OP refers to <up> and <down>.  In the minibuffer, these keys by
default navigate so-called "minibuffer history", where e.g. <down>
inserts "future" history, AKA the next default value.  So <down> is
actually "navigating" the list of defaults (completing-read's 7th
argument), not the list of completions (completing-read's 2nd argument).

If this is not the kind of input you're referring to, then could you
please clarify which input you're referring to?

>> For more details on minibuffer keymaps there's also
>> (info "(emacs) Minibuffer Maps")[2], found e.g. via the index entry
>> 'C-h r i minibuffer key TAB RET'.
>>
>> [1]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Minibuffer-History.html
>> [2]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Minibuffer-Maps.html
>>
>> HTH,

-- 
Basil