Re: icomplete-mode vs. iswitchb

[Dmitry Gutov]

chad <address@hidden> writes:

> My experience matches this; I've seen multiple people quit using
> ido because of this exact behavior (find-file'ing a new file), and
> also because of how it opens directories in find-file (i.e. it
> doesn't). I believe they ~all liked icomplete.
>
> I would guess that an ido that didn't do this by default is probably
> a more attractive default.

Probably, yes. But that would be a fairly different mode of operation,
doing basically what icomplete does.

> I get that many people prefer ido to iswitchb, and I think it'd be
> great if emacs provided completion by default. I wonder if any of
> the ido fans have tried icomplete?

icomplete is less obtrusive, but ido is definitely more efficient, with
its non-prefix and flex matching.

And, in order to not have to bother with C-j for items not present in
the existing set, with icomplete you always have type or press Tab to
get to the desired item, maybe several times, even if the item is the
first in the list.

Thus, for switching buffers, icomplete is less efficient than both ido
and iswitchb.