How does one use ecomplete?

How does one use ecomplete?

[Manoj Srivastava]

Hi,

        I have been using message-x, which binds <TAB> to
 message-x-tab -- which works great, most of the time. Unfortunately,
 it also seems to block ecomplete -- I can see all the options that
 ecomplete has found in the minibuffer, but there is no way to select
 any of them.

        So, I stopped using message-x -- with the result that <TAB> in
 the to header  runs the command message-tab, which consults
 message-completion-alist,  
 ("^\\(Resent-\\)?\\(To\\|B?Cc\\):" . message-expand-name)

        Now, message-expand-name find my bbdb, and runs
 bbdb-complete-name. running expand-abbrev does not help -- No
 ecompletion :(

        My message-mail-alias-type is set to 'ecomplete, fwiw.

        Is there someway to have ecomplete take precedence, or if no
 ecomplete matches are found, to have tab fall back to message-tab (or
 message-x-tab)?  Failing that, How may I add the ecomplete selection
 entry point to `message-x-unknown-header-function', which is the
 function called when the message-x completion function has not done
 anything.

        manoj

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Re: How does one use ecomplete?

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> In <87odrx6724.fsf@glaurung.internal.golden-gryphon.com>
>>>>>	Manoj Srivastava wrote:

>         I have been using message-x, which binds <TAB> to
>  message-x-tab -- which works great, most of the time. Unfortunately,
>  it also seems to block ecomplete -- I can see all the options that
>  ecomplete has found in the minibuffer, but there is no way to select
>  any of them.

Well, I don't know how I use TAB for ecomplete (it might be
because I don't use message-x).  I use neither EUDC nor BBDB,
but use mail-abbrevs[1] (of which database is ~/.mailrc) and
ecomplete.  I type `di', ecomplete shows some candidates in the
minibuffer, and I choose ding@gnus.org among them using M-n, M-p
and RET.  Or I type `ding SPC'[2] to get ding@gnus.org using
mail-abbrevs.

[1] To use both mail-abbrevs and ecomplete, I use the following:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(setq message-mail-alias-type 'ecomplete
      message-self-insert-commands '(self-insert-command
				     egg-self-insert-command))

(add-hook 'message-setup-hook
	  (lambda nil
	    (if (fboundp 'mail-abbrevs-setup)
		(mail-abbrevs-setup)
	      (if (fboundp 'mail-aliases-setup)
		  (mail-aliases-setup)))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

[2] I also use TAB, ',', etc. instead of SPC.

Re: How does one use ecomplete?

[Miles Bader]

Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org> writes:
> Well, I don't know how I use TAB for ecomplete (it might be
> because I don't use message-x).  I use neither EUDC nor BBDB,
> but use mail-abbrevs[1] (of which database is ~/.mailrc) and

TAB in message-mode is bound to `message-tab', which for a To: header
by default ends up calling `message-expand-name'.

I think maybe message-expand-name should complete mail aliases (e.g., by
calling `mail-complete'), but it doesn't.  This is it's current
definition:

   (defun message-expand-name ()
     (if (fboundp 'bbdb-complete-name)
         (bbdb-complete-name)
       (expand-abbrev)))

Changing it to:

   (defun message-expand-name ()
     (if (fboundp 'bbdb-complete-name)
         (bbdb-complete-name)
       (and (mail-complete nil) 
            (expand-abbrev))))

Seems to make it work more naturally for me, but I don't know if it's
really the right thing to do...

The "(and (mail-complete nil) (expand-abbrev))" makes it call
expand-abbrev if the preceeding word is a valid alias and was not
expanded by mail-complete -- so hitting TAB once on a unique prefix of
some alias will complete it to the full alias name, and hitting TAB
again (or any other abbrev-expanding key) will then actually expand that
alias.  This seems pretty reasonable behavior to me.

-Miles

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