Re: Now branch isearch-vertical

[Gregory Heytings]

Hi Ergus,

> 1) Could you add some customs for the separators? This may simplify the 
> "unless" calls you needed to add twice. But also will permit the user to 
> configure them.
>
> IMO the best alternative is a sort of format; but at least setting the 
> {} [] and () somehow will be very handy... maybe with a const pair.

That's not necessary to implement icomplete/fido verticality, so it should 
better be done with another patch I think.  I'll submit a patch for that 
later.

(There is a single "unless" AFAICS.)

> 2) I am wondering about the icomplete-code that determines the number of 
> candidates. IIRC the candidates are determined by the windows width... 
> so maybe that needs some check? Because with narrow windows or long 
> candidates the list may be needlessly truncated in vertical?

The trick is that there is no calculation of the number of candidates.  A 
(long enough) list of candidates is added in an overlay, and Emacs 
automatically displays the first ones.  With a smaller window you'll see 
less candidates, with a larger one you'll see more of them.

> 3) When you corrected my branch that time ago I remember that your 
> recommendation was to respect the user option icomplete-separator. To 
> detect if it had a "\n". Now that most of the display issues are solved 
> and the setup is simpler.  Isn't it possible to do that with a simple 
> (if) in icomplete-minibuffer-setup instead of adding a hook?; setting 
> some variables and then avoid all the `unless` and `if` in the (if 
> prospects) part? So we don't need the extra mode and the setup for the 
> user will be simpler.

That would have been possible in principle, but the code would not have 
been much simpler, and I think changing the behavior for a specific value 
of a user variable isn't the best thing to do.  It's clearer to have a 
minor mode that users can toggle, and the setup in an init file is as 
simple as possible: "(icomplete-vertical-mode 1)".