Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/jrosdahl/fancy-dabbrev

Emacs dabbrev-expand with preview and popup menu
https://github.com/jrosdahl/fancy-dabbrev

completion emacs emacs-lisp expansion

Last synced: 3 months ago
JSON representation

Emacs dabbrev-expand with preview and popup menu

Lists

README 

        
fancy-dabbrev

=============



[![MELPA](https://melpa.org/packages/fancy-dabbrev-badge.svg)](https://melpa.org/#/fancy-dabbrev)



fancy-dabbrev essentially wraps the Emacs built-in [dabbrev] functionality,

with two improvements:



1. **Preview**: If `fancy-dabbrev-mode` is enabled, a preview of the first

   expansion candidate will be shown when any text has been entered. If

   `fancy-dabbrev-expand` then is called, the candidate will be expanded.

2. **Popup menu**: The first call to `fancy-dabbrev-expand` will expand the

   entered word prefix just like `dabbrev-expand`. But the second call will

   show a popup menu with other candidates (with the second candidate

   selected). The third call will advance to the third candidate, etc. It is

   also possible to go back to a previous candidate by calling

   `fancy-dabbrev-backward`. Selection from the menu can be canceled with

   `C-g`. Any cursor movement or typing will hide the menu again.



Example

-------



After typing "defi":



![Example 1](images/fancy-dabbrev-1.png)



After pressing TAB (assuming it is bound to `fancy-dabbrev-expand`):



![Example 2](images/fancy-dabbrev-2.png)



After pressing TAB a second time:



![Example 3](images/fancy-dabbrev-3.png)



The menu entries are by default sorted on proximity. This can changed with the

`fancy-dabbrev-sort-menu` configuration option.



After pressing TAB a third time:



![Example 4](images/fancy-dabbrev-4.png)



After pressing space:



![Example 5](images/fancy-dabbrev-5.png)



Installation

------------



`fancy-dabbrev` depends on the

[popup](https://github.com/auto-complete/popup-el) package, so you need to

install that first if you don't have it already.



To load `fancy-dabbrev` itself, store `fancy-dabbrev.el` in your Emacs load

path and put something like this in your Emacs configuration file:



```elisp

;; Load fancy-dabbrev.el:

(require 'fancy-dabbrev)



;; Enable fancy-dabbrev previews everywhere:

(global-fancy-dabbrev-mode)



;; Bind fancy-dabbrev-expand and fancy-dabbrev-backward to your keys of

;; choice, here "TAB" and "Shift+TAB":

(global-set-key (kbd "TAB") 'fancy-dabbrev-expand)

(global-set-key (kbd "") 'fancy-dabbrev-backward)



;; If you want TAB to indent the line like it usually does when the cursor

;; is not next to an expandable word, use 'fancy-dabbrev-expand-or-indent

;; instead of `fancy-dabbrev-expand`:

(global-set-key (kbd "TAB") 'fancy-dabbrev-expand-or-indent)

(global-set-key (kbd "") 'fancy-dabbrev-backward)

```



Configuration

-------------



`fancy-dabbrev-expand` uses `dabbrev-expand` under the hood, so most

`dabbrev-*` configuration options affect `fancy-dabbrev-expand` as well. For

instance, if you want to use `fancy-dabbrev-expand` when programming, you

probably want to use these settings:



```elisp

;; Let dabbrev searches ignore case and expansions preserve case:

(setq dabbrev-case-distinction nil)

(setq dabbrev-case-fold-search t)

(setq dabbrev-case-replace nil)

```



Here are `fancy-dabbrev`'s own configuration options:



* `fancy-dabbrev-expansion-context` (default: `'after-symbol`)



  Where to try to perform expansion. If `'after-symbol`, only try to expand

  after a symbol (as determined by `thing-at-point`). If

  `'after-symbol-or-space`, also expand after a space (the first expansion

  candidate will then be based on the previous symbol). If `'after-non-space`,

  enable expansion after any non-space character. If `'almost-everywhere`,

  enable exansion everywhere except at empty lines.



* `fancy-dabbrev-expansion-on-preview-only` (default: `nil`)



  Only expand when a preview is shown or expansion ran for the last command.

  This has the advantage that `fancy-dabbrev-expand-or-indent` always falls back

  to calling `fancy-dabbrev-indent-command` when there is nothing to expand.



* `fancy-dabbrev-indent-command` (default: `'indent-for-tab-command`)



  The indentation command used for `fancy-dabbrev-expand-or-indent`.



* `fancy-dabbrev-menu-height` (default: `10`)



  How many expansion candidates to show in the menu.



* `fancy-dabbrev-no-expansion-for` (default: `'(multiple-cursors-mode)`)



  A list of variables which, if bound and non-`nil`, will inactivate

  `fancy-dabbrev` expansion. The variables typically represent major or minor

  modes. When inactive, `fancy-dabbrev-expand` will fall back to running

  `dabbrev-expand`.



* `fancy-dabbrev-no-preview-for` (default:

  `'(iedit-mode isearch-mode multiple-cursors-mode)`)



  A list of variables which, if bound and non-`nil`, will inactivate

  `fancy-dabbrev` preview. The variables typically represent major or minor

  modes.



* `fancy-dabbrev-preview-context` (default: `'at-eol`)



  When to show the preview. If `'at-eol`, only show the preview if no other

  text (except whitespace) is to the right of the cursor. If

  `'before-non-word`, show the preview whenever the cursor is not immediately

  before (or inside) a word. If `'everywhere`, always show the preview after

  typing.



* `fancy-dabbrev-preview-delay` (default: `0.0`)



  How long (in seconds) to wait until displaying the preview after a keystroke.

  Set this to e.g. `0.2` if you think that it's annoying to get a preview

  immediately after writing some text.



* `fancy-dabbrev-self-insert-commands` (default `'(self-insert-command

  org-self-insert-command)`)



  A list of commands after which to show a preview.



* `fancy-dabbrev-sort-menu` (default `nil`)



  If `nil`, the popup menu will show matching candidates in the order that

  repeated calls to `dabbrev-expand` would return (i.e., first candidates

  before the cursor, then after the cursor and then from other buffers). If

  `t`, the candidates (except the first one) will be sorted.



Why?

----



There are many other Emacs packages for doing more or less advanced

auto-completion in different ways. After trying out some of the more popular

ones and not clicking with them, I kept coming back to `dabbrev` due to its

simplicity. Since I missed the preview feature and a way of selecting

expansions candidates from a menu if the first candidate isn't the right one, I

wrote `fancy-dabbrev`.



Have fun!



/Joel Rosdahl 



[dabbrev]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Dynamic-Abbrevs.html