bug#46621: Copy line

["Mattias Engdegård" <mattiase@acm.org>]

27 juni 2022 kl. 21.40 skrev Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>:

>> Unfortunately that removes some of the convenience that the command
>> would bring.  I can't see anyone typing `C-x x d` (for example) 3
>> times in a row to get 3 copies, much less 7 times.
> 
> But it accepts a prefix arg, so a shorter key sequence is possible:
> `C-3 C-x x d`.

That's not nearly as useful: it forces you to plan ahead and know the exact number in advance.

With a single keybinding, you can duplicate once, visually confirm that this is what you want to do, and keep duplicating (possibly even holding the key down to repeat!) until you have the number of copies you want. If you go too far, just undo. In other words, it behaves just like any basic text-editing feature. And all of this is available, with exactly the same key, for regions and rectangles!

None of that is possible with a multi-key binding. If you made too many copies you have to erase them by hand, or undo and restart the process with a new prefix number. All of this adds cognitive load, and each attempt requires a series of keypresses.

(Not all commands benefit equally from having a single-key binding, of course. For example, it would not do much to `kill-buffer`.)