GNU bug report logs -
#19467
25.0.50; Default arguments for 'yes-or-no-p'
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Reported by: Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 19:34:01 UTC
Severity: wishlist
Tags: wontfix
Found in version 25.0.50
Done: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.
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tags 19467 + wontfix
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Dani Moncayo <dmoncayo <at> gmail.com> writes:
> On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 10:32 PM, Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> 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
This bug report was last modified 5 years and 337 days ago.
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