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Comment by 098799 | Hacker News Reader

While I understand the general sentiment, I don't understand the specific point. After all, company-mode and it's numerous lsp-based backends are often used as an _unprompted_ completion (after typing 2 or 3 characters) which the user has the option to select or move on. It's the first time I hear of this being somehow against the spirit of GNU. Would you argue this is somehow relinquishing control? I like it, since it's very quick and cheap, I don't mind it running more often than I use it, because it saves me the keyboard clicks to explicitly ask for completion.

FYI I'm not trying to diminish your project, and I'm glad you've made something which scratches your exact itch. I'm also hopeful others will like it.

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> Would you argue this is somehow relinquishing control? I like it, since it's very quick and cheap, I don't mind it running more often than I use it, because it saves me the keyboard clicks to explicitly ask for completion.

I can't answer for others, but personally I don't like the zsh-like way to "show the possible completions in dark grey after the cursor" because it disrupts my thoughts.

It's pull vs push: whether on the commandline or using an AI, I want the results only when I feel I need them - not before.

If they are pushed into me (like the mailbox count, or other irrelevant parameters), they are distracting and interrupting my thoughts.

I love optimization and saving a few clicks, but here the potential for distraction during an activity that requires intense concetration would be much worse.

I don't mind a single completion so much, as long as there's a reasonable degree of precision there. But otherwise I agree with you. I feel like they're only useful if you start typing without knowing what you want to do or how to do it, but if that is the case I know that is the case. Having a keypress to turn on that behavior temporarily just for that might not be so bad.

It's a massive distraction to me, and I refuse to have it turned on anywhere I can turn it off and will actively choose away software that forces it on me.

I can somewhat accept it showing an option if 1) it's the only one, 2) it's not rapidly changing with my typing. I know what I want to type before I type it or know I'm unsure what to type. In the former, a completion is only useful if it correctly matches what I wanted to type.

In the latter, what I'm typing is effectively a search query, and then completion on typing might not be so bad, but that's the exception, not the norm.

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