Re: evaluating numbers

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
> Cc: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>,
>   jean.christophe.helary@traduction-libre.org,  emacs-devel@gnu.org,
>   yuri.v.khan@gmail.com
> Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:40:42 +0200
> 
> > The right way of doing this is "C-u C-x =".  And if we think that this
> > shows way too much info, I'm OK with modifying "C-x =" to show the
> > character name as an optional feature.  These are commands that were
> > specifically designed to describe text; doing that as part of integer
> > evaluation is too general for that.
> 
> There are other cases where displaying Unicode names might be needed
> in the echo area, e.g. sometimes using query-replace to strip accents
> messes the prompt with combining accent characters stacked on each other
> that enlarges the minibuffer window:
> 
>   Query replace regexp (default [́̀̂] → ):

This is a bug in the command that issues the prompt: it should
insulate the combining characters so that they don't combine with the
brackets.  But that might be a separate issue.

> Wouldn't such prompt be more readable?
> 
>   Query replace regexp (default [?\N{COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT}] → ):

The original prompt had 3 characters, but in the latter you show only
one.  How is this the same?  And even one character takes a lot of
screen estate, so imagine how it will look with 3.  Doesn't sound like
a good idea.

Though we might provide a separate feature: a minor mode whereby
hovering the mouse over a character shows its name in a tooltip.  But
using the minibuffer for that is not something I like.