Re: [PATCH] Enhance the use of prefix arguments when filling text

[Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz>]

On 13/11/16 00:55, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> A few comments below.

I'll make these changes for the next revision, thanks.

> So why isn't the default 'hybrid'?  It sounds like a more
> backward-compatible setting to me.

Yes indeed, but it's also a weird setting in that different numbers
have completely different meanings, so I was a bit loathe to make it
the default.  It's not a very intuitive use of the 0-9 numeric prefix
unless you already know why it works that way.

My thinking was that people who tended to use, say, M-1 M-q to
justify text would immediately notice the change and quickly find
their way to the new option by looking at C-h k M-q (docstrings not
yet updated in this patch) or the NEWS file, and quickly rectify
the situation one way or another; whereas for everyone else it seemed
nicer to me if the default behaviour was the more consistent one.

I don't feel too strongly about it, so I'm perfectly happy to make
the hybrid setting the default if people think it's for the best.


-Phil