Re: info inconsistency about "Shell Commands in Dired"

[storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm)]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     IMHO, we should remove the feature all-together -- or just keep it
>     as is and give a better example in the manual, e.g
> 
> 	    mv ? newname.c
> 
>     as well as warnings for things that does not work, e.g.
> 
> 	    mv ? ?-old
> 
> Sorry, I do not understand this text.  Precisely what is the feature
> you propose to remove?  How would ? behave in dired-do-shell-command
> after your proposed change?

Sorry!  My proposal (as presented) didn't make sense in the
dired-do-shell-command context.

Here is a revised proposal:


I propose that to insert the current buffer or file name (see later)
in a prompt, you must enter M-?.

For a normal minibuffer prompt, e.g. M-x shell, this simply inserts
the buffer file name as proposed in my last fix.

For a command to be used with dired-do-shell-command, M-? inserts
a special marker -- e.g. a `?' character with a dedicated text
property, e.g. '(expand t).  Then dired-do-shell-command shall look
for characters with that property and do the replacement on those.

We should probably keep the meaning of ? surrounded by spaces for
backwards compatibility (and ease of use).  And then fix the
documentation to say what works and what doesn't work.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk