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+#+TITLE: Interactive Reverse Variable Search in Emacs
+#+DATE: 2020-09-16T00:04:06-04:00
+#+DRAFT: true
+#+DESCRIPTION:
+#+TAGS[]: emacs
+#+KEYWORDS[]:
+#+SLUG:
+#+SUMMARY:
+
+I don't remember where I read it, but while I was first learning about
+how elisp works, someone had mentioned the fact that it could perform
+reverse variable searches.  I remember thinking that idea was
+incredibly interesting.
+
+I'd tried looking that capability at the time and coming up
+short.v  Every link I'd looked at only talked about reverse I-search and
+xref capabilities.  I pretty soon after forgot about it.
+
+The thought crossed my mind again today, out of the blue, and I
+decided that I would once and for all get to the bottom of it.  I
+stumbled across the answer in [[https://github.com/lepisma/til-emacs][this]] github repo which contains various
+Emacs tips.  Apparently this reverse variable search is performed
+through the =apropos-value= command.  I had to say, I was quite
+disappointed with the result.
+
+The command provides a lackluster interface to say the least, with the
+only input being the ability to enter a search string in the
+minibuffer.  It's results are also fairly disappointing, often not
+even returning a result, with the error message =condition-case:
+Apparently circular structure being printed=.  When the results do
+appear, they are usually hard to understand, with the search term
+being deep in a list.
+
+To quench my thirst for an interactive reverse variable lookup that
+provided accurate results, I decided to make my own. I called it
+[[https://github.com/dantecatalfamo/helm-atoms][helm-atoms]].