From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#8180: 24.0.50; verbose, confusing y-or-n-p prompts in `find-file-no-select' Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 07:16:35 -0800 Message-ID: <435FEA4267C54CB2B558397723E571FE@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1299339435 32441 80.91.229.12 (5 Mar 2011 15:37:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 15:37:15 +0000 (UTC) To: 8180@debbugs.gnu.org Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Mar 05 16:37:11 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtXR-0008GY-PU for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:37:10 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:43449 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PvtXP-0002ij-43 for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:36:59 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=56338 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PvtXK-0002ib-NP for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:36:55 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtXJ-00083V-Dj for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:36:54 -0500 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.43]:41538) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtXJ-00083P-Bw for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:36:53 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtE5-0006qE-Tq; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:17:01 -0500 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: "Drew Adams" Original-Sender: debbugs-submit-bounces@debbugs.gnu.org Resent-To: owner@debbugs.gnu.org Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:17:01 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: report 8180 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs X-GNU-PR-Keywords: X-Debbugs-Original-To: Original-Received: via spool by submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B.129933821626280 (code B ref -1); Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:17:01 +0000 Original-Received: (at submit) by debbugs.gnu.org; 5 Mar 2011 15:16:56 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDz-0006po-MV for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:55 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDy-0006pb-9B for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:54 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDr-0003RA-6n for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:49 -0500 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]:56374) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDr-0003R0-4S for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:47 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=56897 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PvtDp-000553-Tw for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:47 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDo-0003QC-Qo for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:45 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:61692) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PvtDo-0003Q4-Ld for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:16:44 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com (rcsinet15.oracle.com [148.87.113.117]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id p25FGgoO032594 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK) for ; Sat, 5 Mar 2011 15:16:43 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt354.oracle.com (acsmt354.oracle.com [141.146.40.154]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id p25FGejn011910 for ; Sat, 5 Mar 2011 15:16:42 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt010.oracle.com by acsmt355.oracle.com with ESMTP id 1111730431299338195; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 07:16:35 -0800 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/10.159.51.176) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Sat, 05 Mar 2011 07:16:35 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-Index: AcvbSFDhFoVEUODASlOb7FlKOoCy6Q== X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 X-Source-IP: acsmt354.oracle.com [141.146.40.154] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090208.4D7253DA.013F,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.11 Precedence: list Resent-Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 10:17:01 -0500 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 140.186.70.43 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:44658 Archived-At: There are several `y-or-n-p' prompts in `find-file-no-select' that are very long (e.g. 6 lines!) and confusing. Some other (alternative) user interaction should be found for this. Either just a short prompt or, if it is important to convey some background info, then also pop up an informative window for that. But do not try to provide such info in the prompt. This was orginally part of bug #8177. Eli correctly suggested a separate bug report for it. Given the other problem reported in #8177, these prompts were being seen frequently. Normally they are seldom seen, which is probably why this has been broken since Emacs 22. The rest of this bug description is taken from #8177. The annoying dialog you get uses multiple lines of text (6!) to prompt in the minibuffer (or in a popup, depending on how you invoke the function) for a y-or-n answer. The prompt text is *far* too long and pretty much incomprehensible to an average user. This is the `y-or-n-p' prompt (including its line breaks): "The file maybe-a-very-long-file-name.jpg is already visited literally, meaning no coding system decoding, format conversion, or local variables. You have asked to visit it normally, but Emacs can only visit a file in one way at a time. Do you want to revisit the file normally now? (y or n) " That is _ridiculously_ long and confusing. It is horribly user unfriendly. `find-file-noselect' is now filled to the gills with such gobbledygook prompts, each more twisted and verbose than the next. It's hard to believe that we have been prompting users this way since Emacs 22 (the prompts for this are much shorter in Emacs 21). Fortunately, these prompts not encountered very often. In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2011-02-28 on 3249CTO Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600 configured using `configure --with-gcc (4.4) --no-opt --cflags -Ic:/imagesupport/include'