Subject: bug#49869: Revert buffer? Yes/No/Maybe

From: Juri Linkov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2021 02:33:55 +0300

>> The problem is that by default the length of the key sequence
>> when the user decides to revert the current buffer
>> is 7 keys:
>>
>>   'C-x x g y e s RET'
>>
>> With the patch provided by Gregory the default length
>> will be reduced to 4 keys:
>>
>>   'C-x x g y'
>>
>> or to 3 keys when there are no unsaved changes.
>
> First, you can have those 4 keys if you customize use-short-answers;
> no changes in Emacs are necessary.
>
> And second, are you talking only about reverting when there are no
> unsaved changes?  If so, what are the use cases when you need to do
> such a thing, and why?  Perhaps such use cases justify a separate
> command and key binding, like "C-x RET r" does for one such use case.

I discovered this problem while editing source code in one
Emacs instance, and updating the source file in `emacs -Q`.
To get an updated version of the file in `emacs -Q` required
typing 4 more keys after every revert.

>> But when the user decided to revert the buffer explicitly,
>> why require to type more keys?
>
> In general, when there are unsaved changes?  To let the user think one
> last time before doing something potentially very destructive.

The question was why require typing more keys
when there are no unsaved changes.