GNU bug report logs - #77253
30.1.50; Support RET choosing the selected completion without rebinding arrow keys

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: Spencer Baugh <sbaugh <at> janestreet.com>
To: 77253 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: juri <at> linkov.net
Subject: bug#77253: 30.1.50; Support RET choosing the selected completion without rebinding arrow keys
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:10:57 -0400

Right now, minibuffer-visible-completions does two things, only when
*Completions* is visible:

A. If there's a selected completion candidate, RET exits the minibuffer
with it.

B. The arrow keys move point in the *Completions* buffer instead of the
minibuffer, to select completion candidates.

These are really two separate things.

A is a nice behavior for novice users, but B is difficult for novice
users (who like to use the arrow keys for moving point) to deal with.

We should make them separately configurable, or at least allow enabling
the RET behavior without the arrow keys behavior.

And with the addition of completion-auto-deselect, the RET behavior is
actually a plausible default behavior: it only takes effect if the user
has manually selected a completion candidate with M-<up>/M-<down>, and
the selected candidate is automatically deselected if the user types
more.  So it won't affect anyone who isn't explicitly making use of
M-<up>/M-<down>.

So I suggest we should add a new defcustom to change the RET behavior in
the presence of a selected completion candidate, and default it to t.

Previous Next

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