Re: FFAP

[Juri Linkov]

> By "integration" I mostly mean the functionality, not necessarily
> the code.  But if it means preloading ffap.el, that's not necessarily
> a bad thing, although I think that by integrating it, we can make it
> a lot simpler, so I expect that a complete rewrite will be preferable
> (especially since we probably wouldn't provide every single last detail
> of ffap's functionality).

I forgot that we already have a clean and small counterpart of ffap
that can be preloaded instead of ffap.el.  It is thingatpt.el.
With (thing-at-point 'filename) it returns the filename at point,
and with (thing-at-point 'url) it returns the URL at point.

>> The idea is to put a file/URL from the text around the point into
>> the minibuffer's default values list.  So typing `C-x C-f M-n'
>> on a file name will bring in it from the current buffer into the
>> minibuffer.
>
> I thought about it but M-n is already used in some file prompts for
> other purposes,

Let's see what currently M-n does in file prompts (0. means the default
input, and 1. - the minibuffer's content after one M-n):

`C-x C-f' in a non-file buffer:
0. current directory name

`C-x C-f' in a file buffer:
0. current directory name
1. file name of the current buffer

`C-x C-v' in a file buffer:
0. file name of the current buffer
1. file name of the current buffer
(the last case has duplicates)

> so the user would then have to hit M-n more than once to get the
> file-at-point, which makes it cumbersome.

After adding a file name at point:

`C-x C-f' in a non-file buffer:
0. current directory name
1. file name at point

`C-x C-f' in a file buffer:
0. current directory name
1. file name of the current buffer
2. file name at point

`C-x C-v' in a file buffer:
0. file name of the current buffer
1. file name at point

So M-n more than once is only in a file buffer,
where we could add a file name at point before
the file name of the current buffer:

`C-x C-f' in a file buffer:
0. current directory name
1. file name at point
2. file name of the current buffer

> I think a dedicated keybinding would be better.

Of course, a dedicated keybinding would be good as well.
IIRC, the last time this has been discussed where Drew
proposed `M-.' to yank text at point into the minibuffer in:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/50372

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/