Please add link to (or instructions on how to get) popup.el

[jpellegrini]

Hello,

The README says I should get popup.el, but doesn't tell me where to get it. There are a couple of packages in MELPA with names that sound similar to popup, but they don't seem to be the one used in synosaurus.

If I understood correctly, the one used is this: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/PopUp
which, as I understand, is the same as this: https://github.com/auto-complete/popup-el.

But the github page says it has been archived and is now read-only; there are 77 forks of it, and I wouldn't know which is more interesting to use (lots of those are probably not maintained, some could be possibly broken...)

So - could you please add to the README a link to the right place where users may get popup.el, the correct version?

[hpdeifel]

The one in melpa would be this one: https://melpa.org/#/popup

At the time when I wrote this README, popup.el was a well-known package (used e.g. by auto-complete). But since it is now abandoned, the right thing would be to find a modern alternative and implement that in synosaurus.

[jpellegrini]

I suppose x-popup-menu (which comes with Emacs) won't do?
(I personally think the old popup.el looks nicer)

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Pop_002dUp-Menus.html

Or maybe make it work with company-mode?

[hpdeifel]

I think toolkit menus always feel out of place in emacs. The menu used by company-mode would be a good fit, but iirc it's not usable in a standalone way.

[jpellegrini]

The menu used by company-mode would be a good fit, but iirc it's not usable in a standalone way.

I agree. But even if it's not, would you think that making synosaurus work with company mode is a good idea? Or too much bloat?

[jpellegrini]

Now that I think of it, synosaurus need not depend on company-mode... But it could use it when available (so there's no bloat) -- and it seems pretty easy to add a company backend:

https://github.com/company-mode/company-mode/wiki/Writing-backends

[hpdeifel]

I think company mode has a different use case. Synosaurus doesn't really offer completions, but more replacements. Also it should not be triggered while typing (I guess).

Btw, popup.el is also optional. If you configure another synosaurus-choose-method, it's not required to be installed. Hint: If you use ivy or helm, default may use those.