Re: [ELPA] New package: transient

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,
>   address@hidden
> Date: Sat, 02 May 2020 12:48:33 -0400
> 
> >> Typical examples: is it `multibyte-string-p` or `string-multibyte-p`,
> >> `file-name-absolute-p` or `absolute-file-name-p`, ... ?
> > Then "C-u C-h a WORDS..." is your friend.
> 
> Nope, way too slow.

Is that the only problem? then let's speed it up, and Bob's our uncle.

> I shouldn't have to do anything more than `str-mul TAB`.

If you remembered the function's name, yes.  But that's not the use
case we are discussing here.

> >> Yes, we can try and improve completion, but we have a real underlying
> >> problem of irregular naming and completion would just help us paper
> >> over it.
> > The command "C-u C-h d regexp RET" brings up 111 matching functions.
> > Who will have patience looking through that list, unless the likely
> > candidates are near the beginning?
> 
> IIUC that means you agree with my argument?

Of course not!  I'm saying that "regular naming" will increase the
length of the candidate list.

> > I don't object to this.  I'm just saying that the hope this will allow
> > you to quickly find that-function-you-almost-remember-the-name-of are
> > overly optimistic.
> 
> We impose a prefix convention on the rest of the Elisp world, and while
> some authors don't like it, I find that it is not just useful much more
> generally than to avoid conflicts, so we should try and use it for
> Emacs's core as well.

The prefix convention we impose has almost nothing to do with the
issue at hand, because the package's name in many (most?) cases says
nothing about its domain of application.  E.g., take message.el or
tmm.el or windmove.el or tempo.el or xdg.el, to name just a few random
examples.

> It's not a new opinion, BTW: I started doing that back in Emacs-21 with
> the newcomment.el package which tried to stick to the "comment-" prefix
> even for things which previously used a different name.

Beginner's luck.  Occasionally, this could just happen to work, when
the package's name happens to say something about its purpose.  But
mostly it doesn't, as packages like the one whose name is in the
Subject clearly demonstrate.