🚀 go-pugleaf

Emacs 18.57.

Problem 1.  The function temp_echo_area_contents fails after a message
when echo_area_contents != 0 or prev_echo_area_contents !=0.  The
equivalent function in Emacs 18.55, temp_minibuf_message, worked in this
situation.  To reproduce the problem, type this:

  C-x C-f jkl;asdf;jlk ?

And notice that the message " [No completions]" no longer shows up at the
end of the minibuffer text because the message "Making completion list..."
overrides it.

The fix is to insert these two lines in temp_echo_area_contents:

  echo_area_contents = 0;
  prev_echo_area_contents = 0;

Problem 2.  It is very hard to write your own completion routines that
display such messages after the minibuffer text because
temp_echo_area_contents is not accessible from Lisp.  Here is the code
that is currently necessary just to have the effect of clearing
echo_area_contents and prev_echo_area_contents:

      ;; The purpose is to set echo_area_contents = 0, so that the contents
      ;; of the minibuffer will show.
      ;; *** fix this so it doesn't assume RET exits minibuffer
      (let ((unread-command-char ?\C-m))
	(read-from-minibuffer "" nil nil nil))
      ;; This sets prev_echo_area_contents = echo_area_contents (which is 0)
      ;; *** fix this so it doesn't assume RET exits minibuffer
      (let ((unread-command-char help-char)
	    (help-form '(setq unread-command-char ?\C-m)))
	(read-key-sequence nil))

As you can easily tell, this is a gross, disgusting hack that is likely to
fail in future versions of Emacs.  The fix for this is to make
temp_echo_area_contents work, and make it accessible from Lisp.

-- 
Joe Wells <jbw@cs.bu.edu>
Member of the League for Programming Freedom --- send e-mail for details