Re: etags to xref changed navigation

[Stefan Monnier]

>>>> I'm not sure what the problems would be, concretely, but we can always
>>>> solve the problem by making the behavior optional.
>>> I think the reason why it was on M-, before was because repeated
>>> M-. couldn't tell whether you wanted the next, or to start a new search
>>> for whatever point is on now.
>> That's also my understanding, and I'm suggesting that it distinguishes
>> the two by checking if `M-.` is used consecutively or not (just like
>> `C-/` can't easily tell whether you want to keep undoing or you want to redo
>> the thing you just undid, so it checks whether these `C-/` are
>> consecutive or not).
> In such as scheme, if the first 'M-.' brings you to a beginning of a symbol,
> the next 'M-.' would be ambiguous: would you want to continue the previous
> navigation (and go to the second location), or would you want to go to the
> definition of the new symbol?

Not sure which part of my above-quoted text isn't clear: the ambiguity
would be "hand waved" away by saying that when the users hits `M-.` without
doing anything else in between, they are telling Emacs to keep looking
for the same symbol.  If they want to start a new search, they should
break the sequence, e.g. with `C-g` or `C-f C-b`, you name it.

IME in most languages `M-.` usually jumps to a symbol which you will
rarely want to use for a new search.


        Stefan