Re: A Fistful of Goodies

[Peter S Galbraith <p.galbraith@globetrotter.net>]

>                       I also continue to roam the web in search for
> new ones, and I continue to welcome suggestions.

I've suggested it before ;-)

 http://people.debian.org/~psg/elisp/ff-paths.el

 This code allows you to use C-x C-f normally most of the time, except that 
 if the requested file doesn't exist, it is checked against a list of 
 patterns for special paths to search for a file of the same name.

 Examples:
  - a file extension of .bib will cause to search the path defined in 
    $BSTINPUTS or $BIBINPUTS for the file you requested.
  - a file extension of .h will cause the /usr/include/ and
    /usr/local/include/ directory trees to be searched.
  - a file extension of .sty causes a search of TEXINPUTS and of all 
    directories below /usr/lib/texmf/tex/
  - a file extension of .el causes a search of the path set in the
    emacs variable load-path.
  - If the aboves searches don't return a match, the filename is searched
    for using the `locate' command (if available on your system).  
  - gzip-compressed files (.gz) will also be found by ff-paths if
    the package jka-compr is present.  If you use some other package,
    simply set the ff-paths-gzipped variable to t:

 If one file is found, or many files of the same name are found, then the
 *completions* buffer is displayed with all possibilities, including the
 non-existing path you first provided.  Selecting it creates the new
 file.


-

I need to update it to use defcustom, but it's been a reliable package
for me for years.