From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com>, help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: RE: Transposing words over middle words
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2017 09:26:28 -0800 (PST) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <d1ba050b-17b0-4bf6-9022-111b7c39f01a@default> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <6ec7af50-26c3-4a03-8fcd-d389a492db02@googlegroups.com>
> > > > C-u 0 M-t works fine.
> > >
> > > BTW, I'd argue that C-u M-t should work as well: currently it is
> treated
> > > like C-u 4 M-t, but I think it's a poor choice.
> >
> > Really? That a lone C-u means an arg of 4 is burnt into our muscle
> > memory for decades. Compare with "C-u C-n". A command that receives
> > a numerical argument normally treats all of its arguments as numbers.
> > Breaking that in a single command sounds like a misfeature.
>
> Org mode (at least) is full of functions for which C-u means change some
> behavior (C-u C-u changes more) and has nothing to do with some magic
> number 4
It's fine for `C-u' to be interpreted numerically (as 4)
by any command. It's also fine for plain `C-u' to have
a different behavior from `C-u 4' or `M-4' for any given
command. As long as the doc string makes the prefix arg
possibilities clear.
The fact that `C-u', when interpreted numerically, is
"burnt into our muscle memory" is important. But it is
only important for commands that interpret the prefix
arg only numerically, and do not interpret plain `C-u'
in some other way.
The ability to provide different behaviors for plain
`C-u', plain `C-u C-u', plain `C-u C-u C-u', and plain
`-' is important - just as important as the ability to
give different behaviors to a numeric prefix arg for
> 0, = 0, < 0, => 0, <= 0 cases.
It is wonderful that Emacs lets a command let users
distinguish `-' from `-1', just as it can let users
distinguish `-1' from `-2'.
This not an argument that commands should always or
often provide many, many alternative behaviors via
a prefix arg. It's an argument that they should be
able to (and they are able to) use all the various
raw prefix-arg possibilities however they want.
There are plenty of commands for which a prefix
arg is not at all used numerically - commands for
which a numeric interpretation has no meaning.
Not all commands are like motion commands such as
`C-n'.
Even commands that can interpret a prefix arg
numerically can sometimes benefit from providing
additional interpretations for plain `C-u' etc.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-11-17 17:26 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 68+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <mailman.3764.1510787840.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-16 7:04 ` Transposing words over middle words Loris Bennett
2017-11-16 8:41 ` Joost Kremers
2017-11-16 8:47 ` Joost Kremers
2017-11-16 16:06 ` Eli Zaretskii
2017-11-16 22:26 ` Bob Proulx
2017-11-17 5:00 ` Yuri Khan
2017-11-17 5:08 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-17 8:55 ` Gian Uberto Lauri
2017-11-17 8:58 ` Gian Uberto Lauri
2017-11-17 9:10 ` Eli Zaretskii
2017-11-17 9:35 ` Gian Uberto Lauri
2017-11-17 16:03 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-11-17 16:19 ` Robert Pluim
2017-11-17 20:41 ` Marcin Borkowski
2017-11-17 16:42 ` Eli Zaretskii
2017-11-17 22:53 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-11-17 23:02 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.3897.1510936953.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-17 16:57 ` Rusi
2017-11-17 17:26 ` Drew Adams [this message]
2017-11-17 18:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
2017-11-17 22:55 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-11-17 23:09 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-21 17:21 ` Tomas Nordin
2017-11-22 18:18 ` Arnaldo Mandel
2017-11-22 19:15 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-22 21:33 ` Stefan Monnier
2017-11-17 20:38 ` Marcin Borkowski
2017-11-18 17:11 ` Robert Thorpe
2017-11-16 21:55 ` Michael Piotrowski
2017-11-16 23:05 ` Joseph C. Fineman
2017-11-17 0:39 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-17 7:19 ` Eli Zaretskii
2017-11-18 20:29 ` clhs on other languages f.nikolakopoulos
2017-11-21 0:43 ` Robert Thorpe
[not found] ` <mailman.3847.1510879170.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-17 23:34 ` Transposing words over middle words Joseph C. Fineman
2017-11-18 0:05 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.3932.1510963563.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-18 22:55 ` Joseph C. Fineman
2017-11-18 23:57 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.3856.1510903218.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-17 23:35 ` Joseph C. Fineman
2017-11-15 23:17 Bob Proulx
2017-11-15 23:35 ` Eric Abrahamsen
2017-11-16 6:03 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 0:04 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-18 17:07 ` ken
2017-11-18 19:34 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-19 2:06 ` ken
2017-11-19 2:15 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-19 2:34 ` John Mastro
2017-11-19 3:39 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-19 4:37 ` Drew Adams
2017-11-19 4:58 ` Drew Adams
2017-11-19 14:56 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 19:34 ` Charles A. Roelli
2017-11-16 19:41 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 20:09 ` Marcin Borkowski
2017-11-16 21:15 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 22:55 ` Bob Proulx
2017-11-16 23:02 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 21:18 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 22:43 ` Drew Adams
2017-11-16 22:59 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-17 16:21 ` Drew Adams
2017-11-17 20:52 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-11-16 22:28 ` Bob Proulx
[not found] ` <mailman.3765.1510789425.27995.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-11-16 22:02 ` Michael Piotrowski
2017-11-16 23:00 ` Bob Proulx
2017-11-16 23:29 ` Eric Abrahamsen
2017-11-16 23:30 ` Eric Abrahamsen
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