Subject: bug#64185: proposal for new function: copy-line

From: Mattias Engdegård <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2023 11:07:58 +0200

>  'duplicate-dwim' duplicates the region if it is active.  If not, it
>  works like 'duplicate-line'.  An active rectangular region is
> -duplicated on its right-hand side.
> +duplicated on its right-hand side.  The new user option
> +'duplicate-line-final-position' specifies where to move point
> +after duplicating the line.

This makes it unclear to what extent the variable affects `duplicate-dwim`. (For some reason it only does so when the region is inactive, which doesn't seem right.)

And I agree that allowing any integer as value isn't necessary the best choice here. It's a false flexibility; nobody will ever set it to something other than 0, 1 or -1. Symbols would probably be better, for several reasons.

Finally, it's a bit surprising that this is even discussed for inclusion in Emacs 29 at this stage, given the raw state of the design. What about we do a proper job on master instead, instead of rushing a half-baked new feature into a branch that is already deep into pre-release?