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with-emacs

Execute commands like Marty McFly

in category ui-hacks

Inspired by Cameron Desautels’s post and this discussion on /r/emacs I thought about ways to automate "reading the future". For some commands I would like to see the default value right away.

Commands like switch-to-buffer already include it in their prompt, but can we peek into the future for those which don’t? — Just kidding, of course we can: this is Emacs!

(defvar mcfly-commands
  '(query-replace-regexp
    flush-lines
    keep-lines))

(defvar mcfly-back-commands
  '(self-insert-command
    ivy-yank-char
    ivy-yank-word
    ivy-yank-symbol))

(defun mcfly-back-to-present ()
  (remove-hook 'pre-command-hook 'mcfly-back-to-present t)
  (cond ((and (memq last-command mcfly-commands)
              (equal (this-command-keys-vector) (kbd "M-p")))
         ;; repeat one time to get straight to the first history item
         (setq unread-command-events
               (append unread-command-events
                       (listify-key-sequence (kbd "M-p")))))
        ((memq this-command mcfly-back-commands)
         (delete-region (point)
                        (point-max)))))

(defun mcfly-time-travel ()
  (when (memq this-command mcfly-commands)
    (let* ((kbd (kbd "M-n"))
           (cmd (key-binding kbd))
           (future (and cmd
                        (with-temp-buffer
                          (when (ignore-errors
                                  (call-interactively cmd) t)
                            (buffer-string))))))
      (when future
        (save-excursion
          (insert (propertize future 'face 'shadow)))
        (add-hook 'pre-command-hook 'mcfly-back-to-present nil t)))))

;; setup code
(add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook #'mcfly-time-travel)

(with-eval-after-load 'ivy
  (push (cons 'swiper 'mcfly-swiper)
        ivy-hooks-alist)
  (defun mcfly-swiper ()
    (let ((sym (with-ivy-window
                 (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
      (when sym
        (add-hook 'pre-command-hook 'mcfly-back-to-present nil t)
        (save-excursion
          (insert (propertize sym 'face 'shadow)))))))

For commands added to the mcfly-commands variable the default value will be shown in the minibuffer and you can accept it with RET. When you start typing the preview is removed automatically. There are probably some edge cases where the above hack fails, so feel free to submit improvements here.

I updated the code with an example how to achieve something similar for swiper. A similar method could be used for any command using ivy:

(with-eval-after-load 'ivy
  (push (cons 'swiper 'mcfly-swiper)
        ivy-hooks-alist)
  (defun mcfly-swiper ()
    (let ((sym (with-ivy-window
                 (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
      (when sym
        (add-hook 'pre-command-hook 'mcfly-back-to-present nil t)
        (save-excursion
          (insert (propertize sym 'face 'shadow)))))))