Subject: Re: bug#25665: 26.0.50; [PATCH] Indicate prefix arg in minibuffer prompt for shell-command

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2017 22:31:32 +0200

> From: Tino Calancha <[email-masked]>
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2017 01:53:56 +0900
> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> 
> I am not sure about this.
> The meaning of the prefix argument must be explained in the docstring.
> That and the manual are the source of documentation, not the prompt.
> 
> Having a short prompt is also good because there are more space
> in the line for the command; a short prompt is also better while tipying
> a long command: sometimes you want to change something at the beginning:
> < ; `beginning-of-buffer'
> Now you need to `C-f' several times to jump out of the prompt.  The more
> verbose prompt, the more `C-f' you need.
> 
> Just my opinion.  Let's see what other people think.

I think it goes against Emacs conventions.  We have quite a few
commands that insert output into the current buffer when invoked with
an argument.