Re: make `occur' use word at point as default

[Emilio Lopes]

Richard M Stallman writes:

>     The command `occur' currently uses the last item in the regexp
>     history as the default value.

> Please do not change that.  Peopel are accustomed to just typing RET
> to search for the same thing again.

That's a good point.

But the problem remains: too often I have to first mark a word or symbol,
copy the region, start a command (`grep', `occur', `query-replace',
whatever), paste it, press <enter>.  That's three keystrokes too many.

How do other people accomplish this?

I think something like isearch's "C-w" and friends extended to other
commands which read from the minibuffer would be useful.

Opinions?