Interesting minor modes discovered in the Emacs guided tour
I was looking for a good introduction to Emacs for some friends and stumbled upon the truly excellent Guided Tour of Emacs on gnu.org. And unsurprisingly it contained a few useful minor modes of which I had never heard.
icomplete-mode
icomplete-mode shows completions in the minibuffer as you type. If you’re too impatient to hit tab, then this is the minor mode for you.
iswitchb-mode
This global minor mode solves an inconvenience that had always bothered me. Typically, to see a list of buffers without resorting to the mouse, one has to C-x b TAB to see the list of buffers, or C-x C-b and then toggle over to the other window (Ctl-o) to use dired to select a buffer. Too many keystrokes.
With iswitchb-mode turned on, C-x b shows a list of avaialble buffers in the mini buffer, narrowing them down as you type. A much easier way to jump between dozens (hundreds?) of open files.
Update: Looks like iswitchb-mode has been replaced with the far superior ido-mode as of Emacs 22.
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