Modifying a custom defun to not conflict with Magit

Question

I use the following smart-tab defun in my .emacs for either completion on a word or just to do a standard tab:

(global-set-key [(tab)] 'smart-tab)
(defun smart-tab ()
  "This smart tab is minibuffer compliant: it acts as usual in
    the minibuffer. Else, if mark is active, indents region. Else if
    point is at the end of a symbol, expands it. Else indents the
    current line."
  (interactive)
  (if (minibufferp)
      (unless (minibuffer-complete)
        (dabbrev-expand nil))
    (if mark-active
        (indent-region (region-beginning)
                       (region-end))
      (if (looking-at "\\_>")
          (dabbrev-expand nil)
        (indent-for-tab-command)))))

However, when I'm using magit-status for git Git integration, I could previously select a file that has had a modification, hit tab, and instantly see a diff on that file to see what's been modified. However, whenever I attempt a tab now, I get the following error in my mini-buffer.

indent-relative: Buffer is read-only: #<buffer *magit: my_project*

Any thoughts on approaching this and maybe applying smart-tab above to certain modes only?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I am the maintainer of smart-tab, available from GitHub. The latest version defines a minor mode which turns itself off in a read-only buffer or the minibuffer, allowing things like ido-mode and magit to work properly. It also is better at handling situations where you want the key run a different command than indent-for-tab-command, such as org-mode. I highly recommend you use the GitHub version, as it avoids a lot of the headaches of the basic version with a global keybinding.