Re: messages override minibuffer input

["Davis Herring" <herring@lanl.gov>]

> Can you look for places in the sources where it would be right to use
> `optional-message'?  If you find many, then the function would be a good
> feature.

Places where `optional-message' might be useful:
autorevert.el, in `auto-revert-handler'
desktop.el, in `desktop-idle-create-buffers'
help-at-pt.el: see approximate reimplementation in `help-at-pt-maybe-display'
speedbar.el, in `speedbar-timer-fn'
emacs-lisp/eldoc.el, in `eldoc-message', perhaps to replace
`eldoc-display-message-no-interference-p'
perhaps erc/erc-backend.el, in the PRIVMSG response handler
perhaps erc/erc-notify.el, in `erc-notify-timer'
gnus/mm-decode.el, in the process sentinels in `mm-display-external'
gnus/nntp.el, in `nntp-accept-process-output'
progmodes/cperl-mode.el, in `cperl-get-help'
progmodes/idlwave.el, in `idlwave-load-rinfo-next-step'
progmodes/vhdl-mode.el, in `vhdl-print-warnings'
textmodes/reftex-dcr.el: see approximate reimplementation in
`reftex-view-crossref-when-idle'
emacs-lock.el, in `emacs-lock-clear-sentinel'
find-dired.el, in `find-dired-sentinel'
man.el, in `Man-notify-when-ready'
pcvs.el, in `cvs-sentinel'
vc-arch.el, in the lambdas created in `vc-arch-trim-make-sentinel'
eshell/esh-proc.el, in `eshell-remove-process-entry'
progmodes/sql.el, in `sql-stop'
perhaps progmodes/xscheme.el, in `xscheme-process-sentinel'
url/url.el: see approximate reimplementation in `url-lazy-message'

I just checked lisp/; I do not think very much asynchronous messaging
occurs in src/.

> You can write Lisp code to do the same things now done at C level.  We
> could also turn that C code into a subr, if that is useful.

True, but how should client code request it?  I can't add an optional
argument to `optional-message' and have it work like `message' now, of
course.

Davis

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