Re: C-u - does not work

[Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>]

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In article <87bn3ba2os.fsf@Equus.decebal.nl>,
 Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> wrote:

> On Wednesday  1 Jun 2016 00:00 CEST, hasm@example.invalid wrote:
> 
> >
> >> When I want four - I would expect the following to work:
> >> C-u -
> >> but it does not.
> >
> > You can enter a number after C-u, defaulting to 4, number can be
> > positive or negative. When you type -, emacs things you are
> > composing a negative number.
> 
> I should have thought about that. :-(
> 
> But the situation I started with (but dumped down) was that I did:
>     C-u C-u -
> 
> With ‘C-u C-u’ I already signified that I want 16, so why does that
> not work and do I have to give:
>     C-u 16-
> 
> Not really a problem, but just wondering.

From the documentation:

C-u without digits or minus sign provides 4 as argument.
Repeating C-u without digits or minus sign
 multiplies the argument by 4 each time.

So if you type a number after C-u, it doesn't matter that you repeated 
it, it switches to the explicit numeric argument.

If you think this is wrong design, file a bug report.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***