From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: Rationale behind conversion of a nil prefix arg to numeric 1 Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2016 08:40:38 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <9f4a7edc-95c0-40a7-85d4-81047d4e2e4f@default> References: <87y437c0qg.fsf@bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_40_000> <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> <6512cbf9-e702-bc96-7489-54fa23f9bfe8@verizon.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1473362299 20294 195.159.176.226 (8 Sep 2016 19:18:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2016 19:18:19 +0000 (UTC) To: Charles Millar , help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Sep 08 21:18:15 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 1bi4pv-0004Pf-Em for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Sep 2016 21:18:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53105 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bi4pt-0004Fs-Ds for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Sep 2016 15:18:09 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:48248) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bi1RX-0004h2-LN for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Sep 2016 11:40:48 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bi1RT-0003Ff-RH for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Sep 2016 11:40:46 -0400 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:26917) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bi1RT-0003FP-2j for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Sep 2016 11:40:43 -0400 Original-Received: from userv0022.oracle.com (userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id u88FefeG029479 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 8 Sep 2016 15:40:42 GMT Original-Received: from aserv0122.oracle.com (aserv0122.oracle.com [141.146.126.236]) by userv0022.oracle.com (8.14.4/8.13.8) with ESMTP id u88FedtF022772 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 8 Sep 2016 15:40:40 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0019.oracle.com (abhmp0019.oracle.com [141.146.116.25]) by aserv0122.oracle.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id u88FedAu007197; Thu, 8 Sep 2016 15:40:39 GMT In-Reply-To: <6512cbf9-e702-bc96-7489-54fa23f9bfe8@verizon.net> X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.9 (901082) [OL 12.0.6753.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 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:111314 Archived-At: > I have read this thread as well as the other suggested readings. If the > purpose of either p or P is to pass arguments, I do not understand the > rationale of allowing C-u when using the interactive upper case P. As > noted above, It returns an integer as the only element in a list, which > if evaluated returns an error. Is there a use for this? Such as you may > want an error? Sorry, but I don't understand your question. What do you mean by "allowing C-u when using the interactive upper case P"? `C-u' with (interactive "P") does return `(4)' as the value of the argument. But why do you ask about evaluating that list (value)? Emacs Lisp uses strict evaluation of arguments to functions: all args are evaluated before evaluation of the function body. `(4)' is the "evaluated" value of the raw prefix argument - the function body does not normally invoke `eval' on that to evaluate it again (which would raise an error). Maybe try to clarify your question. Consider showing an example.