Re: Looking for CDPATH functionality in emacs.

[Le Wang]

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 2:55 AM, Steven W. Orr <steveo@syslang.net> wrote:

So, if you made it this far, here's the recap:

1. Does anything already exist that smells like what I want?

Yes, abbrev (see below).  I don't use them heavily myself, but here is a tutorial: http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_abbrev_mode.html

 

2. Can I fix my-visit-file so that a C-u will prevent the default prompt from
being the current directory of the file I'm starting from? (But I do still
want filename completion.)

 

Read the filename yourself, so you can have control:

(defun my-visit-file (arg)

 "Visit a file using completion. If there is only one window with

nothing in it, then do not split the current window. "

 (interactive "P")

 (let ((insert-default-directory t)

       my-file)

   (when (equal arg '(4))

     (setq insert-default-directory nil))

   (setq my-file (read-file-name "my-visit-file: "))

   (if (and (one-window-p) (zerop (buffer-size)))

       (find-file my-file)

     (find-file-(or  )ther-window my-file))))

(define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table

  '(("spec" "/path/to/special/dir" nil 0)))

You can read the doc on `read-file-name' and `insert-default-directory' for yourself.  I've also added an abbrev table entry for "spec".  So, if you <C-u>my-find-file, "spec", <C-x>ae, it should expand do what you want.

You can bind expansion to a shorter chord if you like.

-- 
Le