Subject: bug#17983: closed (Re: bug#17983: 24.4.50; digit keys in *Messages* unhelpful, hang Emacs, etc.)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 07:11:03 +0000

Your bug report

#17983: 24.4.50; digit keys in *Messages* unhelpful, hang Emacs, etc.

which was filed against the emacs package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
17983: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=17983
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Re: bug#17983: 24.4.50; digit keys in *Messages* unhelpful, hang Emacs, etc.
From: Glenn Morris <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 03:10:25 -0400
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Part of this is you trying
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2013-09/msg00284.html

again. This is about the third time now. Give it a rest.

For the rest, read the help of quoted-insert.

If you want to type text, maybe try text-mode?

If you have a clear, reproducible recipe to freeze Emacs starting from
emacs -Q, I suggest opening a new report that just gives that recipe,
minus all the invective.

Subject: 24.4.50; digit keys in *Messages* unhelpful, hang Emacs, etc.
From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 19:35:05 -0700 (PDT)
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

emacs -Q

C-x b *Messages*

C-h k 7

Tells you that 7 is bound to `digit-argument'.

Why?  It should NOT be.  It is useful to be able to write text in
*Messages*, e.g., to set off or group sets of debug messages.  There is
no need for digit N to be a short cut for C-u N in buffer *Messages*.

C-x C-q ; Make the buffer writable

Unfortunately, Emacs has recently screwed *Messages* so that most keys
are not self-inserting.  This was misguided.  Be that as it may...

C-q H C-q e C-q l C-q p C-q !

Painful, but OK so far.  Now try this:

C-q 7

Nothing.  Nada.

C-q 7 C-q 7 C-q 7.  You see ^G inserted each time (except the first)
that you hit C-q (not when you hit 7), because 7 acts as a prefix arg
for the following ^Q.  Wunderbar.  A feature, no doubt.

C-q 7 7 7.  Now Emacs is hosed - in Neverneverland.  ESC ESC ESC no
good; C-g no good.  No mouse, no keys, nada.  And no CPU use.  Just
hosed.

The only recourse is to kill the Emacs task from the Windows Task
Manager.

OK, you might not see this freezing behavior each time.  Sometimes C-g
does quit OK, as does C-b, muose-1 etc.  Hit C-q and then hold 7 down
for a few seconds, then C-g.  If Emacs is not frozen solid and C-g works
then you get helpful feedback such as this:

Quit
user-error: A-C-H-M-S-s- is not a valid character

Other times, Emacs freezes solid.  Regardless of whether it freezes each
time, if you hit C-q and then 7 one or more times there is no feedback -
already a no-no (bug).

C-q should simply quote the 7, as it should quote other characters you
type (including ^U, BTW).

Trying to "improve" *Messages* for Emacs 24 was misguided.  It is far
less useful now than it was before.  Is there even one change that was
made that represents progress - something useful?  Please consider
reverting it to what it was since Day One.  Barring that requested
return to sanity, please at least fix the C-q behavior.  Thx.

In GNU Emacs 24.4.50.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2014-06-28 on ODIEONE
Bzr revision: 117431 [email-masked]
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
Configured using:
 `configure --prefix=/c/Devel/emacs/snapshot/trunk
 --enable-checking=yes,glyphs 'CFLAGS=-O0 -g3'
 LDFLAGS=-Lc:/Devel/emacs/lib 'CPPFLAGS=-DGC_MCHECK=1
 -Ic:/Devel/emacs/include''