RE: Isearch: retrieve last successful search string from when you quit (`C-g')

[Drew Adams]

> Quite. Perhaps I'm just an idiot, but I always thought the current
> isearch behaviour of not immediately quitting when C-g was stuck on a
> failed search was a *bug*. 

That is something very different from what this thread is about (and not a bug,
IMO).  The C-g behavior in Emacs incremental search is somewhat complex (depends
on the search state), and fine as is (IMO).

> Only now, after Drew commented on it, do I
> notice that it's removing the unfound component of the failed
> search: i.e., it's a feature, but unless you spend your time
> looking at the echo area while isearching (and who does that?)
> they'll never notice it.

And that too is something very different from what this thread is about.

This thread is about a proposal to save (it is not currently saved) the last
_successful_ search string when you exit isearch using C-g.  It is not about
saving the search string for a _failed_ search.

A successful search is one where the search string is found - matches text in
the buffer.  Just because a search is successful does not mean that you decide
to accept it, i.e., to stay at one of the search hits.

C-g abandons a successful search, and it keeps no record of the search string
that was successful.

The question of this thread is whether to save (one way or another) the search
string when searching succeeded and make it available to you later, and if so,
how.