Re: RE: [External] : Placement of list within an interactive clause

[Christopher Dimech <dimech@gmx.com>]

> Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 1:22 PM
> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> To: "Jean Louis" <bugs@gnu.support>, "carlmarcos@tutanota.com" <carlmarcos@tutanota.com>
> Cc: "Christopher Dimech" <dimech@gmx.com>, "Help Gnu Emacs" <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> Subject: RE: [External] : Re: Placement of list within an interactive clause
>
> There's been a lot of "noise" and running
> around the barn (and around and around again)
> in this thread regarding what "interactivity"
> and "interactive" mean, could mean, or should
> mean, for Emacs.
>
> In Emacs jargon, an "interactive function" is
> another name for a "command".  That's all.
> And that's all that the `interactive' spec is
> for: to make a function interactive.
>
> What does that mean - what is an interactive
> function?  It's just a function that you can
> invoke in either of these ways:
>
>  * Using `M-x' followed by the function name
>  * Using a key that is bound to the function.

Correct.  And always associated with user action.  An is
the notion of command.  It is not just an arbitrary command
though, but commands that a user can access whilst running
the program.

> That's _all_ it means, in Emacs jargon.  In
> particular, it has _NOTHING_ whatsoever, per
> se, to do with any reading of user input,
> from the minibuffer or in any other way.

Sure.  Still, calling minibuffer commands without making
the function a user-accessible command (via M-x), is still
user-interactive in nature.

> Certainly, a function that reads user input
> can be said to be interacting with the user.
> But an `interactive' spec is not about that.

It is actually, it is so user can access with M-x.
Has nothing to do with functionality that emacs simply
does under the hood.  Most of what is done under the
hood is not important to the user.  What is important
to the user is the commands he can launch.  For him,
that is what he defined interaction.  Non-interactive
is when he cannot interact with emacs commands (either
with M-x or minibuffer reads).

> HTH.
>