RE: migrating from ido to icicles

[Drew Adams]

> Sorry yes I meant M-TAB.

I started that confusion, I guess. ;-)

> >> However the docs for icicle-word-completion-keys suggest that 
> >> I can also bind SPC if I wanted.  That actually sounds better
> >> because I can't remember the last time I tried to complete a
> >> filename with a space in it.
> >
> > I don't recommend that, but you are welcome to do it.  Icicles
> > completion works for all kinds of things, many of which contain
> > space chars.
> 
> Ok, maybe it won't work out,

It will work out.  It's just that with Icicles you might well end up completing
things that contain space chars, and in that case you might prefer not to have
to use `C-q SPC'.

> but I definitely use actual space characters very rarely in the
> minibuffer for completion.

You might end up using completion for more than you have so far.

> > 3. Toggle Icicle mode twice (exit and re-enter): M-x 
> > icy-mode M-x icy-mode.  (Or restart Emacs.)
> 
> I'll try that, thanks.  In general do I need to cycle icy-mode off/on
> when I change these bindings?  I've noticed sometimes changes 
> don't seem to take effect immediately, it's hard to tell which ones 
> require restart.

Most option value changes are reflected immediately, without your needing to do
anything else.

And in many cases you can hit a key during minibuffer input to toggle or cycle
particular options.  For example, `C-M-"' cycles
`icicle-expand-input-to-common-match' and `C-#' cycles
`icicle-incremental-completion'.

In some cases, notably minibuffer key bindings, you need to exit then reenter
Icicle mode, e.g., use `M-x icy-mode' twice.  The doc strings of the options
that require you to toggle Icicle mode should mention that.

Key-binding option changes generally require you to toggle Icicle mode because
it is when the mode is turned on/off that the bindings are made/unmade.

> > That option name should be without the `-flag'.  Long ago 
> > the option was a Boolean and its name had the suffix `-flag'.
> > Since you mention a value of `1' you clearly do not have an
> > older version of Icicles where the option had that former name.
> 
> Ok, I copy/pasted that from the wiki page,

Ouch!  Thanks, I found a couple such occurrences and have fixed them.

FYI, I update the plain-text doc that is distributed with the code, and then I
diff that to update the wiki pages.  Glad you caught this.

> > This explains common-match expansion:
> > 
> > http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Expanded-Common-Match_Completion.
> >
> > This explains incremental completion:
> > http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Icompletion
> >
> > You can cycle/toggle either of these during completion, to 
> > see the differences.  See the doc strings of
> > `icicle-expand-input-to-common-match' and
> > `icicle-incremental-completion'.
> 
> Ok now I'm confused.  I've read the docs, they seem clear enough.  I
> thought incremental completion means "when I type a character, the
> *Completions* buffer updates immediately to reflect what I just typed"

Yes.

> And I thought common-match expansion meant "when all the completions
> have common characters beyond what's already in the minibuffer, they're
> automatically added to the minibuffer".

That's right.  And highlighted in *Completions*.

> Which one affects what's in the minibuffer?

`i-e-i-t-c-m' affects expansion of your input to the common match, if there is
one.

`i-i-c' affects whether and when *Completions* gets updated incrementally as you
type/edit.

> I could have sworn that's the common-match expansion,

It is.  You have understood the doc correctly.

> which I have turned off.  And yet, somehow what I'm typing in the
> minibuffer ends up with extra characters that I didn't type,
> and ultimately there are 0 matches because I've got "foo"
> with an o that I typed, and an o that was added 
> automatically, but there are no completions starting with 'foo'.

Sounds like a bug.  Please report it using `M-x icicle-send-bug-report'.
Try to give a recipe starting from `emacs -Q', mentioning your Emacs version.

But I just uploaded a fix for a bug which made `i-e-i-t-c-m' = 0 and 1 not work
right.  You might try that first, to see if it also fixes the problem you see.
You will need to download the latest icicles-fn.el:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/download/icicles-fn.el

Sorry for your trouble.