From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Rationale behind conversion of a nil prefix arg to numeric 1 Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 12:27:57 +0200 Message-ID: <20160906102757.GA21435@tuxteam.de> References: <83oa43d9r8.fsf@gnu.org> <06d4a7f1-f116-fb5c-9bd2-c4d1f98934c9@easy-emacs.de> <83k2ercy5u.fsf@gnu.org> <83bn02cs54.fsf@gnu.org> <83ed1411-dbc1-2fe1-5fe9-4fdc7a4d1b21@online.de> <83shteb26t.fsf@gnu.org> <20160906071015.GB15537@tuxteam.de> <87inu98ipz.fsf@bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_40_000> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; x-action=pgp-signed X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1473157723 32490 195.159.176.226 (6 Sep 2016 10:28:43 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2016 10:28:43 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Sep 06 12:28:40 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDcJ-0007WJ-GF for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 12:28:35 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60510 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDcH-0003F0-9l for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:28:33 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:45546) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDbr-0003Et-VF for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:28:08 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDbl-0003E1-VB for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:28:06 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.tuxteam.de ([5.199.139.25]:59284 helo=tomasium.tuxteam.de) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDbl-0003Dx-Or for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:28:01 -0400 Original-Received: from tomas by tomasium.tuxteam.de with local (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1bhDbh-0005bn-KY for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Sep 2016 12:27:57 +0200 In-Reply-To: <87inu98ipz.fsf@bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_40_000> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 5.199.139.25 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:111282 Archived-At: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, Sep 06, 2016 at 11:45:28AM +0200, Florian v. Savigny wrote: > > > > Alternatively, for Andreas the axiom "the default value is always 0" > > holds ;-P > > I do sympathise with him, because my question started out supposing > exactly the same thing. It just seems intuitive that nil translates to > the number 0, if any, and when things are intuitive, this is (I think) > generally good. Definitely. Andreas' viewpoint is in some way understandable. > It all becomes immediately clear when you understand that the numeric > prefix arg has a special purpose, i.e. is conceived as a repeat > counter (and NOT simply a number), but only then. In other words, > `prefix-arg-as-repeat-counter' might be the kind of name that would be > more readily understandable (and would even arguably be more accurate) > than `prefix-numeric-value'. I.e. "when the action is multiplicative, use the multiplicative neutral element (i.e. 1) as default, not the additive (ie. 0) ;-) But I'll shut up now. regards and thanks for your lenience - -- t -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlfOmi0ACgkQBcgs9XrR2karDgCfQaGjbKee0Mal3uWFra1zyyZA NDsAn3N/VAm6Vxzt+ddMBtitINtiXO7k =sy/y -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----