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From: morgan@CHAOS.CS.BRANDEIS.EDU ("Dylan Kaufman")
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs
Subject: isearch question
Message-ID: <9103142126.AA29444@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 91 21:26:46 GMT
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A user came to me the other day and asked me a question which has been
sitting in the back of my mind for a long time.

His question is:  why doesn't backspace shorten the search string and
backup so that it finds the shortened string?  Apparently it works
that way on all of his other copies of emacs (on his PC).  The effect
backspace would have is similar to the effect of pressing ^G when you
have NOT found a string because of the most recent character.  For
instance, if I type 'testinn' when I mean to type 'testing', if
'testinn' is not in the buffer, it says not found, and if I press ^G,
it goes back to 'testin' at which point I can press 'g' and find
'testing'.  If, on the other hand, 'testinn' IS in the buffer, it will
be found, and I will have to end the search with ^G and start again in
order to get to the same place I was before I pressed the second n (or
I could do ^a to get out of the isearch and do an backwards search on
'testin' and then make it a forward search again before pressing
'g'...)  

However, it would be nice if I could press backspace to have it remove
the most recently added character and back up one find.  Does such a
patch to isearch exist?  

Thanks for your help.



-<>Dylan<>-                     MA EMT-M, CA EMT-1A, BEMCo 107
Dylan Kaufman 			Major in Computer Science
morgan@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu	Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
------<< Support your local Emergency Medical Services >>-------
"Don't ask me, I'm just improvising" -RUSH