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bug#13592: 24.2.92; C-s prompts with "Multi I-search:" today
From: |
Eli Zaretskii |
Subject: |
bug#13592: 24.2.92; C-s prompts with "Multi I-search:" today |
Date: |
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:56:25 +0200 |
> From: Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>
> Cc: 13592@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 02:34:03 +0200
>
> > . Why is it a good idea to show this Multi thing at the very
> > beginning of the search, when there's no evidence whatsoever that
> > the search is in danger of crossing into the next file in the
> > series? It's confusing to see this, because _I_ didn't ask for
> > multi-file or multibuffer isearch. It took me by surprise and
> > forced me to go looking for the reason (tried in other versions of
> > Emacs and in other buffers, before it dawned on me that it is
> > something specific to add-log mode). You want to be nice to me?
> > fine: then show this to me when I type C-s that will cross into the
> > next file, but not before that.
>
> When you type C-s that will cross into the next file,
> it appends this text to the isearch message:
>
> [repeat for next buffer]
Then I submit that we don't need the uncalled-for "Multi" in the
prompt.
> > _Then_ I might appreciate the service. But when I type my first C-s,
> > please give me just what I asked for.
>
> Multi-file isearch is a special kind of search, so the prefix "Multi"
> informs the user that the search will go through a set of files.
That information confuses when the user didn't ask for this to happen.
> This is like the prefix "Regexp" informing the user that the search
> is regexp-based, and other informative prefixes as well.
It is OK to show "Multi" when the user explicitly invokes
multi-isearch.
> > . This should at least be documented in the manual. When I saw this
> > prompt, I tried to figure out what it meant (did someone really
> > think that "Multi" explains it all?), but it seems not to be
> > mentioned anywhere in the docs. Even the NEWS entry for Emacs
> > 23.1, which does say that isearch is automatically multi-file in
> > ChangeLog files, doesn't mention this prompt. I needed to wade
> > through isearch.el to find what it meant, only to find out that the
> > facility used to trigger it -- multi-search-next-buffer-function --
> > is not documented in the Elisp manual, either, which sounds weird
> > if we consider such features useful in other modes.
>
> It could be documented in (info "(emacs) Other Repeating Search")
> where `multi-isearch-buffers' is already described.
It should be documented earlier, right where I-Search is first
introduced, because from the user perspective, she just invoked a
simple I-Search.