Hi Tobias,

I often find it quite annoying that `C-w' during Isearch just inserts the word at point; the reason is that variable identifiers in Lisp contain non-word constituents very often.

E.g. If point is at *special-variables*, you'd have to press `C-w' three times to eventually get it inserted as the search string.

The following will make `C-w' respect symbol constituents as well as word constituents when isearching in Lisp buffers, such that one `C-w' will suffice for gripping special variables.

(defun isearch-yank-symbolic-word-or-char () (interactive) (isearch-yank-internal (lambda () (let ((distance (skip-syntax-forward "w_"))) (when (zerop distance) (forward-char 1)) (point)))))

(add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook (lambda () (make-local-variable 'isearch-mode-map) (define-key isearch-mode-map "\C-w" 'isearch-yank-symbolic-word-or-char)))

I consider this generally useful, and wanted to ask if I should commit something like that to Slime?

I don't know whether it should be put into Slime; however, it's easy enough to set this in emacs by doing the following:

(modify-syntax-entry ?- "w") ; now '-' is not considered a word-delimiter

-- Bill Clementson