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

[Noam Postavsky <npostavs@users.sourceforge.net>]

On Sun, Nov 13, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>> From: Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz>
>> Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2016 23:33:39 +1300
>>
>> > 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.
>
> I don't feel strongly, either, and will probably never use this
> feature anyway.  So let's see if there's someone else who thinks
> 'hybrid' is a better default.
>

I can't say that I would use this feature much, but 'hybrid' sounds
like the better default to me. Consistency is nice, but in this case
it's not an especially helpful consistency, since filling with such a
tiny width would be very rare.