Re: [mange@freemail.hu: grep-tree doesn't shell-quote-argument]

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>> So what you suggest is that the current grep-tree should replace
>>> grep-find/find-grep as the default interface, and the current
>>> grep-find functionality should be selected if a prefix arg is
>>> specified.
>>
>> This is somewhat radical and might surprise people.  
>
> True, but that's how things evolve :-)

Sure, but we generally need two things for evolution:

a) a recipe to put into NEWS and antinews how to get back the old
behavior (there are always people shouting for that on any change).

b) sort of a migration path so that those people can actually be made
to swallow the new way piece by piece.

> I imagine to implement it with grep-find being just a front-end to
> two other commands grep-find-command and grep-find-template
> (corresponding to the old grep-find and grep-tree).  So an easy way
> for a user to get the desired behaviour would be to defalias
> grep-find to either of these if the default doesn't suit him.

Customize by alias?  Not really the most desirable thing in my book.

>> How about making a configurable "grep-find-prompt" option that ...
>> ... And use C-u M-x grep-find RET for being
>> able to post-edit the command, and maybe C-u C-u M-x grep-find RET for
>> getting the inverse than the default behavior.
>
> So we merge two commands into one (because people cannot remember
> which is which), and then we add a new cryptic customize option to
> configure what it should do by default, and a couple of prefix args to
> tweak things even further.

You make it sound like it would be a bad idea...

Drop the "couple": just let grep-find prompt for everything when given
a prefix argument.  But I think a customization option for the
default, namely whether to prompt for parts or the command, would be
more reasonable than an _alias_ for selecting the default behavior.

We don't usually customize by alias.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum