Subject: bug#18340: 24.4.50; Bad UI for `find-file-literally'

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 08:05:04 -0700 (PDT)

> > We should perhaps consider obsoleting `resize-mini-windows'.  Emacs has
> > many prompts now that don't make sense in a single line.
> 
> Those prompts should bind resize-mini-windows non-nil.
> 
> I don't understand the rest of the bug report, 

What don't you understand about it?  (To quote a famous person.)

> but the specific part about find-file-literally will be
> definitely fixed by that.

I don't think so.  `resize-mini-windows' will do nothing for a
standalone minibuffer.  Again: "Don't show a multi-line message
for prompting `y-or-n-p' in the echo area and expect users to see it."

It is NOT a good idea to depend on `resize-mini-windows' showing
all of a multi-line message.

If the code _really_ needs to interact with the user using a
multi-line message, then `y-or-n-p' is the _wrong_ way to ask
the question.  If users need to read multiple lines then hitting
a single key to choose is probably not appropriate.

This should be rethought, IMO.  If the prompt cannot reasonably
be a single line then some other interaction should be used.
Do not just look for a way to force minibuffer-window resizing.