Subject: bug#50811: 28.0.50; Misleading Docstring for read-string function

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2021 06:40:31 +0200

Codruț Constantin Gușoi <[email-masked]> writes:

> That's exactly the behaviour I need for renaming a file, for example; a
> prompt pre-filled with the current filename. It's the same UX as in every
> other program that does this sort of functionality and the extra keypress
> makes it harder to use.

I wasn't part of the discussions when this happened (I think it was more
than a decade ago), but I think the idea was that users were annoyed
that (in many cases) they had to remove the default completely before
being able to type stuff in.

That is, with

(read-string "PROMPT " "This is the very long default")

you have to delete all that before you can type in "foo", which is what
you wanted to say.  (Or `C-a C-k' is you're an expert.)

Putting the default in the "future history" means that the user can type
"foo" immediately (if they want that), or RET if they want the default,
or `M-n' if they want to edit the default.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no