Twisted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Jun 23, 8:35 pm, Robert Uhl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Twisted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> >> > For an example of the latter, consider opening a file. Can't remember >> > the exact spelling and capitalization of the file name? Sorry, bud, >> > you're SOL. Go find it in some other app and memorize the name, then >> > return to emacs. >> >> Once again I am forced to wonder if you have _ever_ actually used >> emacs. find-file has tab completion: hit tab without anything typed, and >> it displays _everything_ in the directory; type a few characters to >> narrow it down; hit tab to complete the filename and be done with it. >> >> Or of course you could use directory mode, which enables you to navigate >> around a directory tree, performing actions on files (including editing >> them). >> >> Then of course there's ido.el, which is even better: type a few >> characters from anywhere in the name, and it displays files matching >> those characters. > > Really? None of this happens if you just do the straightforward file- > open command, which should obviously at least provide a navigable > directory tree, but definitely does not.
The first does. Really, it does. Fire up emacs (which you've never done before) and type C-x C-f. You will be presented with a prompt something like 'Find file: ~/'; hit tab once; you'll see the message '[Complete, but not unique]'; hit tab again and you will be presented a list of all files in that directory. > Tab completion is a poor cousin to a real directory tree navigator, as > I'm sure most would agree. I wouldn't. There are several directory navigators installed on this machine, but I never use anything more than bash's tab completion. If you like 'em, though, just select File:Visit New File. It gives you a platform-default (gtk+, for me) file selector. > Even if it will show all matches to a partial name instead of none, > it's the textual equivalent of navigating a directory tree made into > menus instead of provided by a proper folder view window. Windows > users unfortunately have the experience regularly: the notorious Start > menu. You have to expand submenus to find stuff, and you can't leave > it idling to do something somewhere else and come back to it because > it's a menu. Nope, because of the way emacs works you can stop what you're doing, do something else and come back to the minibuffer. As an example, while I was typing the first paragraph, I had find-file running in the minibuffer (I was checking for the exact prompts and phrases used). > I can only imagine the pain of trying to navigate an equivalent way in > an 80x25 box of text information. Fortunately, folks brighter than you & I have imagined a nice way for us. It pops up a new Emacs window (pane, if you prefer the terminology) showing a list of all filenames. You could continue typing, or just click on a filename in the window, or hit return while the cursor is on a filename in that window. -- Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl> Dilbert: Not more than ten minutes ago you beat a man senseless. Alice: He was senseless before I beat him. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
