RE: [External] : Re: Is there a way to avoid clobbering minibuffer by messages?

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+drew.adams=oracle.com@gnu.org <help-gnu-
> emacs-bounces+drew.adams=oracle.com@gnu.org> On Behalf Of Eli Zaretskii
> Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:35 AM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: [External] : Re: Is there a way to avoid clobbering
> minibuffer by messages?
> 
> > From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> > CC: "help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org" <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> > Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:28:16 +0000
> >
> > Why not let users choose among several behaviors?
> >
> >  1. Emacs 28+ approach: message and input in
> >     minibuffer at the same time.
> >
> >  2. Traditional approach: echo area displayed
> >     temporarily, in place of the minibuffer.
> >
> >  3. Minibuffer and echo area shown separately,
> >     in different places?
> >
> > And offer various choices for #3: how to show
> > the echo area.
> 
> Users can already choose between 1 and 2: see set-message-function.

Good!  Sorry, I missed that; thank you.

I used menu-bar `Options > Customize Emacs >
New Options', and I searched for "minibuffer" and
"echo area", but didn't find any option for this.

Searching now for `set-message-function' I don't
see it listed either - it's a defvar, not a user
option.

Seems like this doesn't make it easy for users
to discover how to restore the pre-28 behavior,
or even let them do that easily, if they do
somehow manage to discover that variable.

> As for the other alternatives: no one wrote the code to implement
> them; patches welcome.  (Of course, they all can be implemented via
> set-message-function.)

Yes, a user can write code to implement
`set-message-function' to do <whatever>.  But
it would be good for Emacs to offer some OOTB
choices.

I understand that volunteers would be needed
to implement such things.  But it's unfortunate
that the Emacs 28 change wasn't accompanied by
some easy way for a user to revert that change,
getting back the pre-28 behavior.