From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Rationale behind conversion of a nil prefix arg to numeric 1
Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2016 21:33:49 +0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <83k2ercy5u.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <06d4a7f1-f116-fb5c-9bd2-c4d1f98934c9@easy-emacs.de> (message from Andreas Röhler on Sun, 4 Sep 2016 19:11:31 +0200)
> From: Andreas Röhler <andreas.roehler@easy-emacs.de>
> Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2016 19:11:31 +0200
>
> >> I am still wondering about the
> >> rationale of representing nil as the number one. Does this make sense,
> >> or is it useful, in some way?
> > Yes. Most commands use the argument as a repeat count, so having it
> > default to one makes perfect sense.
> >
>
> There a difference between "p" sending 1 and nil - which is the result
> from non-interactive use.
"p" is documented as the _numeric_ value of the argument. So it
obviously cannot yield nil.
> If a function needs a repeat count, it should provide some.
That'd mean changes in 90% of commands. Quite silly, I'd say.
In any case, the OP asked what was the rationale, and I tried to
answer that. Whether or not Emacs should have been designed
differently is another argument for another rainy day.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-09-04 18:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 31+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-09-04 12:23 Rationale behind conversion of a nil prefix arg to numeric 1 Florian v. Savigny
2016-09-04 14:23 ` Eli Zaretskii
2016-09-04 17:11 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-04 18:33 ` Eli Zaretskii [this message]
2016-09-05 7:16 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-05 14:56 ` Eli Zaretskii
2016-09-05 15:22 ` Kaushal Modi
2016-09-05 16:32 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-05 18:41 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-05 19:02 ` Eli Zaretskii
2016-09-06 7:10 ` tomas
2016-09-06 9:45 ` Florian v. Savigny
2016-09-06 10:27 ` tomas
2016-09-06 11:27 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-06 13:27 ` Florian v. Savigny
2016-09-06 15:22 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-06 14:20 ` Kaushal Modi
2016-09-06 16:44 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-06 16:41 ` Kaushal Modi
2016-09-07 23:11 ` Charles Millar
2016-09-08 13:10 ` Kaushal Modi
2016-09-08 14:42 ` Charles Millar
2016-09-08 15:40 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-06 7:22 ` Andreas Röhler
2016-09-05 17:04 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-05 21:39 ` Florian v. Savigny
[not found] ` <<877faqvxfp.fsf@bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_40_000>
2016-09-05 23:32 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-06 3:45 ` B.V. Raghav
2016-09-04 22:53 ` Florian v. Savigny
[not found] ` <<87d1kjjmys.fsf@bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_40_000>
2016-09-05 0:52 ` Drew Adams
2016-09-15 12:47 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
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