Command ($ or #) line; smart completion?

[Les Mikesell]

On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 07:36, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
> >
> > Hit control-R for an emacs-like incremental-search through history.
> > There's a way to switch to vi-style but when I tried it long ago
> > it lost the up/down arrow scroll through history.  Does anyone
> > know if that is fixed now?
> 
> It never was broken. 

It is broken compared to current vi.

>  When you set vi style options, you have to use
> vi commands to access the command history.  The command line ends up
> being put in a modal state just like vi (edit vs. command).  To switch
> to command mode, press ^V.  To switch back into edit mode, use any vi
> edit command like 'i' for insert, for example.  You move through the
> history, and the command like, using the normal vi movement keys of h,
> j, k, and l.

It has been about 15 years since you had to do that in vi itself.
The arrow keys now do line up/down without leaving insert mode (or
at least transparently switch between motion and insert).  I'd
like bash to do the same to get the familiar /search-pattern/
without losing scroll up/down.  It might be possible with
appropriate key mapping but I've never gotten it to work.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com