bug#19467: 25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'

bug#19467: 25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'

[Dani Moncayo]

Severity: wishlist

Recipe:
  emacs -Q
  Eval: (yes-or-no-p "sure?")

I'd like I could choose the "yes"/"no" answer via M-n/M-p (as
alternative to typing the answer directly in the minibuffer).

In GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2014-12-29 on LEG570
Repository revision: ce1ebdf1ba8acc75e8f959f414652cdc87e76401
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.3.9600
Configured using:
 `configure --enable-checking=yes,glyphs CPPFLAGS=-DGLYPH_DEBUG=1'

-- 
Dani Moncayo

bug#19467: 25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'

[Drew Adams]

> I'd like I could choose the "yes"/"no" answer via M-n/M-p (as
> alternative to typing the answer directly in the minibuffer).

FWIW, that defeats the purpose/intention of `yes-or-no-p'.
We have `y-or-n-p' for quick response.  The point of
`yes-or-no-p' is presumably to slow you down and make you
work a bit, so you take the question seriously. ;-)

I don't know whether in practice some occurrences of
`yes-or-no-p' shouldn't instead be `y-or-n-p', and I don't
know whether `yes-or-no-p' really realizes the intention.

IOW, I have no opinion about whether it works as designed.
But it sounds to me like your suggestion conflicts with
the intention.  The idea is not to make it quicker or
easier to reply.

bug#19467: 25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'

[Dani Moncayo]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 10:32 PM, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:
>> I'd like I could choose the "yes"/"no" answer via M-n/M-p (as
>> alternative to typing the answer directly in the minibuffer).
>
> FWIW, that defeats the purpose/intention of `yes-or-no-p'.
> We have `y-or-n-p' for quick response.  The point of
> `yes-or-no-p' is presumably to slow you down and make you
> work a bit, so you take the question seriously. ;-)

I agree wrt the intention of 'yes-or-no-p': force the user to think
the answer well.  But IMO:

1. Looking for a default value with "M-n... RET" entails some work;
   it's not something inmediate like a single keystroke (as in
   'y-or-n-p').

2. The behavior I'm requesting feels quite natural to me: When Emacs
   asks for input with a minibuffer and there are a few valid (or even
   typical) values, those values are available in the minibuffer
   "future history".

-- 
Dani Moncayo

bug#19467: 25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'

[Stefan Kangas]

tags 19467 + wontfix
close 19467
quit

Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo@gmail.com> writes:

> On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 10:32 PM, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:
>>> I'd like I could choose the "yes"/"no" answer via M-n/M-p (as
>>> alternative to typing the answer directly in the minibuffer).
>>
>> FWIW, that defeats the purpose/intention of `yes-or-no-p'.
>> We have `y-or-n-p' for quick response.  The point of
>> `yes-or-no-p' is presumably to slow you down and make you
>> work a bit, so you take the question seriously. ;-)
>
> I agree wrt the intention of 'yes-or-no-p': force the user to think
> the answer well.  But IMO:
>
> 1. Looking for a default value with "M-n... RET" entails some work;
>    it's not something inmediate like a single keystroke (as in
>    'y-or-n-p').
>
> 2. The behavior I'm requesting feels quite natural to me: When Emacs
>    asks for input with a minibuffer and there are a few valid (or even
>    typical) values, those values are available in the minibuffer
>    "future history".

I think this would be a misfeature.  It would be too easy for a user
to answer the wrong thing in response to important questions such as
"Do you really want to delete this file?" by muscle memory M-p RET.

Additionally, as Drew points out above, we already have y-or-n-p which
is better for users that wish to answer these prompts quickly.  I for
one have used this in my init file for as long as I can remember:

(fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

I'm therefore closing this as wontfix.  If anyone disagrees with that,
please feel free to re-open.

Thanks,
Stefan Kangas