Help wanted: Zsh completion like Vertico+Orderless

The great goodness of Emacs has tainted how I feel about my shell. I use Vertico+Marginalia+Consult+Orderless, and life feels awesome inside of Emacs. I go back to my pretty vanilla zsh shell and feel that it's a little… lacking. I understand zsh's completion system is quite configurable. I'd love it if I could make completion inside of zsh feel more like how it behaves in Emacs. In particular: - When I hit `tab` to complete something, I want to be able to hit the `down` key to start cycling through the candidates. - When I find the candidate I want, `tab` should fill it in instead of moving to the next candidate. - If I'm completing a path, after hitting `tab` whilst completing a directory, I should immediately see the contents of that directory, which I can then pick the file I want and hit `tab` again. - Fuzzy completion ala [Orderless](https://github.com/oantolin/orderless) would be awesome: hitting `space` during completion acts as a pattern separator. Does anyone have enough zsh-fu to know how to get something like what I described in the shell? I would prefer to do everything with configuration (i.e. no packages) but that's secondary to getting the behavior that I want. Thanks in advance. :)

Probably better to ask in a zsh sub or Linux sub

I figured other Emacs users would probably be pedantic like me about completion interfaces. :) You're probably right though. I crossposted in the [zsh](https://www.reddit.com/r/zsh/comments/zly477/help_wanted_zsh_completion_like_verticoorderless/) sub. Any other subs you'd recommend I try?

Have a look at https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab

Interestingly the same problem led me to conclude I should replace my shell usage with eshell or emacs solutions. I think I've mostly succeeded, but that might be more difficult, not desired, or not worth it in your case.

I recently discovered eshell and it is awesome. Some things don’t play nice with eshell though. (REPLs for various languages, etc) and I often use the terminal to get some work done.

> Some things don’t play nice with eshell though. (REPLs for various languages, etc) I agree, I have a few fixes for those in order of ease: - coterm.el just makes a lot of ANSI stuff work - eshell-visual-commands and eshell-visual-sub-commands let me open others in vterm seamlessly - better integration for repls with comint > I often use the terminal to get some work done. If you mean like for cp / rm / find type stuff I find eshell fully replaces and improves on those for my use cases. Some of those links: https://github.com/iostapyshyn/eshell-vterm https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/comint-writing-command-interpreter

I'd be curious to know how that's going. All of the Emacs shells/terms fail me in some way. Even vterm. I just move to another workspace and open up a couple of kitties instead. vterm is the closest to happy I have gotten but there are still update rendering problems with long lines and there's no emacs magic to be had. vterm also seems slow/laggy compared to a proper emulator.

I've found oh-my-zsh[1] and fzf-tab very helpful. In the past I've used PowerLevel10k[2] to cut down on the time needed to spawn a new shell. Though I've switched to starship[3] lately in anticipation of me changing to another shell in the future, which I've yet to do--however ,having the command prompt formatting in a shell-independent tool makes me happy, I'm willing to pay the start-up time. On top of all that I wrap my shell sessions in tmux[4], occasionally making use of ob-tmux[5] to wrap sessions and record them as I might need to do. When I use a terminal session inside of emacs, I use vterm[6], which tends to be snappier and also allows me to connect my other shell sessions and use that should I need to copy or track things from there. Within tmux, I use tpm[7] to install themes and plugins and to allow live-reloading my tmux config. Here is the content of that file: # This configuration file binds many vi- and vim-like bindings to the # appropriate tmux key bindings. Note that for many key bindings there is no # tmux analogue. set-window-option -g automatic-rename on set -g mouse on set -g history-limit 1000000 ## FZF for panes TMUX_FZF_POPUP=1 TMUX_FZF_PREVIEW=1 TMUX_FZF_OPTIONS="-p -w 62% -h 38%" TMUX_FZF_ORDER="session|window|pane|command|keybinding" TMUX_FZF_PANE_FORMAT="[#{window_name}] #{pane_current_command} [#{pane_width}x#{pane_height}] [history #{history_size}/{history_limit}, #{history_bytes} bytes] #{?pane_active,[active],[inactive]}" TMUX_FZF_LAUNCH_KEY="C-a" # set prefix key to ctrl+a until I have time to adapt unbind C-b set -g prefix C-a set -g escape-time 0 # split windows like vim # vim's definition of a horizontal/vertical split is reversed from tmux's bind - split-window -v bind | split-window -h bind S setw synchronize-panes # move around panes with hjkl, as one would in vim after pressing ctrl-w bind C-h select-pane -L bind C-j select-pane -D bind C-k select-pane -U bind C-l select-pane -R # resize panes like vim # feel free to change the "1" to however many lines you want to resize by, only # one at a time can be slow bind H resize-pane -L 20 bind J resize-pane -D 20 bind K resize-pane -U 20 bind L resize-pane -R 20 # bind : to command-prompt like vim # this is the default in tmux already bind : command-prompt # vi-style controls for copy mode setw -g mode-keys vi set -g default-terminal screen-256color # Copy-paste integration bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'v' send -X begin-selection bind-key -T copy-mode-vi 'y' send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel pbcopy bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd1Pane send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel pbcopy bind-key -T copy-mode-vi MouseDragEnd3Pane send -X copy-pipe-and-cancel pbcopy # Use vim keybindings in copy mode setw -g mode-keys vi # Start copy mode when scrolling up and exit when scrolling down to bottom. # The "#{mouse_any_flag}" check just sends scrolls to any program running that # has mouse support (like vim). bind -n WheelUpPane if-shell -F -t = "#{mouse_any_flag}" "send-keys -M" "if -Ft= '#{pane_in_mode}' 'send-keys -M' 'copy-mode -e'" ## LINK TO CLONE tpm # git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm # # List of plugins # Supports `github_username/repo` or full git repo URLs set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tpm' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sensible' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-copycat' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-yank' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-open' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-urlview' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-online-status' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-logging' set -g @plugin 'christoomey/vim-tmux-navigator' set -g @plugin 'jimeh/tmux-themepack' set -g @plugin 'yardnsm/tmux-1password' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-open' set -g @plugin 'Morantron/tmux-fingers' set -g @plugin 'sainnhe/tmux-fzf' set -g @plugin 'laktak/extrakto' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-sessionist' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-resurrect' set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-continuum' set -g @plugin 'rafi/tmux-pass' set -g @plugin 'Morantron/tmux-fingers' set -g @plugin 'dracula/tmux' #set -g @plugin 'charlietag/tmux-themes' #set -g @theme-loading-cpu-mem 'on' # [ on | off] , default: on #set -g @theme-network-bandwith 'on' # [ on | off] , default: on #set -g @theme-dark-mode 'on' # [ on | off] , default off #set -g @theme-dark-mode-bindkey 'T' # [ -r T | M-s | -n F11 ] , this is for toggle theme dark mode, define yourself just like bind-key set -g @pass-key 'P' set -g @pass-copy-to-clipboard 'on' set -g @pass-hide-pw-from-preview 'on' set -g @continuum-save-interval '15' set -g @continuum-boot-options 'iterm' set -g @continuum-boot 'on' #set -g @themepack 'basic' run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/themes/theme.tmux # Initializes TMUX plugin manager. # Keep this line at the very bottom of tmux.conf. run-shell '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm' Footnotes: [1]https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/fzf [2]https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k [3]https://starship.rs/ [4]https://github.com/tmux/tmux [5]https://github.com/ahendriksen/ob-tmux [6]https://github.com/akermu/emacs-libvterm [7]https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm

Don't use eshell to run a repl. Use a comint buffer with an inferior process. Many language modes come with a way to send code to a repl, and let you switch over to the buffer to interact with the repl directly.

[deleted]

> REPLs for various languages you may find `comint` interesting for this. As for the cursed stuff, sometimes there are Emacs-native counterparts (like `proced` for `top`, `magit` for `tig` etc). Also, I'm a big fan of [Detached](https://git.sr.ht/~niklaseklund/detached.el), it uses an underlying binary to interact with external commands, but does it better than native solutions.

I copy pasted this setup somewhere and it works almost like you describe it, except fuzzy completion zstyle ':completion:*' completer _expand _complete _ignored _approximate zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' '' 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]} m:{[:lower:][:upper:]}={[:upper:][:lower:]} r:|[._-]=** r:|=** l:|=*' zstyle ':completion:*:*:*:*:descriptions' format '%F{green}-- %d --%f' zstyle ':completion:*:*:*:*:corrections' format '%F{yellow}!- %d (errors: %e) -!%f' zstyle ':completion:*:descriptions' format '%U%K{yellow} %F{green}-- %F{red} %BNICE!1! %b%f %d --%f%k%u' zstyle ':completion:*:default' list-colors "${(s.:.)LS_COLORS}" zstyle ':completion:*' group-name '' zstyle ':completion:*' menu select=2 zstyle ':completion:*' rehash true zstyle :compinstall filename '$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc' setopt AUTO_CD # Go to folder path without using cd. setopt AUTO_NAME_DIRS # Any parameter that is set to the absolute name of a directory immediately becomes a name for that directory setopt AUTO_PUSHD # Push the old directory onto the stack on cd. setopt CDABLE_VARS # Change directory to a path stored in a variable. setopt CORRECT # Spelling correction setopt CORRECTALL setopt EXTENDED_GLOB # Use extended globbing syntax. setopt GLOB_DOTS # Do not require a leading ‘.’ in a filename to be matched explicitly. setopt INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS # Allow comments even in interactive shells setopt MAGIC_EQUAL_SUBST # All unquoted arguments of the form ‘anything=expression’ appearing after the command name have filename expansion setopt NOTIFY # Report the status of background jobs immediately, rather than waiting until just before printing a prompt. setopt PROMPT_SUBST # If set, parameter expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion are performed in prompts. setopt PUSHD_IGNORE_DUPS # Do not store duplicates in the stack. setopt PUSHD_SILENT # Do not print the directory stack after pushd or popd.