How to backspace into a partial completion in emacs icicles

Question

When using emacs (24.3) with icicles, if I do something like

M-x find-file <RET> foo <TAB><TAB>

the *Completion* buffer pops up and I can cycle through completions. In the minibuffer "foo" is now underlined (I think because of Icicle Match Highlight Minibuffer face). At this point there are two behaviours that puzzle me:

1. If I want to further refine my prefix, I can only type one character, further characters overwrite this newly typed character unless I hit <TAB> after each subsequent character. I.e.
   M-x find-file foo <TAB><TAB>ba<TAB> the "a" will overwrite the "b", and the subsequent <TAB> will show matches for fooa* Why can't I type multiple subsequent characters?

2. If, say, "foo" was incorrect, and I want to change it to "fop", I can't just backspace into the prefix(which is showing as underlined in minibuffer). It seems I can only delete the entire prefix and start over. Is there a way to backspace into the underlined prefix?

Answer 1

Try to give a more complete recipe to reproduce your problem, preferably starting from emacs -Q (i.e., no init file, loading only Icicles, and specifying any non-default Icicles option values needed to reproduce the problem).

For example, by default, *Completions* is not popped up just by typing text in the minibuffer. Did you hit TAB? S-TAB?

And you will not see underlining in the minibuffer unless you are cycling among candidates. If you are cycling among candidates then the current candidate is inserted in the minibuffer, and the matched part is underlined.

It's not clear what you are saying: "unless I hit after each subsequent character". Unless you hit what?

In general, I have trouble following (guessing) what you are doing. Try to write down just what you do, step by step. And mention the command names you see in *Completions* when you complete your test input.

You can also contact me by email: M-x icicle-send-bug-report.

If I had to guess, I'd suggest that reading this section of the doc might help you. Dunno.

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UPDATE

I think I know what you are trying to describe, and the answer is at the end of this section of the Icicles doc.

That text explains that if you use delete-selection-mode and if option icicle-point-position-in-candidate or option icicle-mark-position-in-candidate is such that part of the cycled candidate is automatically selected, then any text you type replaces the selection.

This is the normal behavior of delete-selection-mode. It is a feature. If you do not want to replace the active region then, as usual, use C-g to deactivate it. If you find yourself doing this often then consider whether you might prefer a different value for one of those two options.

This small doc section might also help. It is about using delete-selection-mode with Icicles. And this short section is about those options and the region and cycling.