Emacs: isearch-forward-symbol-at-point Problem
or, Which Part of Symbol Don't You Get?
Emacs 24.4, there's a new command isearch-forward-symbol-at-point.
[see Emacs 24.4 (Released 2014-10)]
Try this. Create a file with this content:
xyz ~/xyz/
Now call emacs-lisp-mode
put your cursor at the beginning of the xyz.
now call isearch-forward-symbol-at-point 【Alt+s .】, then press Ctrl+s.
did it land on the “~/xyz/”?
why not? because it searches the “symbol” with added boundary check. (see its doc string) So this means, it's nice if you are in a programing language source code and are searching function/variable names and don't want to jump to another name that happens to contain it as substring. But, in a config file or general text soup, you get stung.
but you can toggle it so it just search string without caring about boundary. Press Alt+s _ while in isearch.
so, it's Alt+s . Alt+s _ Ctrl+s. One heck of a somersault.
In vim, it's *. [see Emergency vim]