asking the user "Compress or uncompress"

[Dan Jacobson]

When we hit Z in dired it asks us if we want to "Compress or
uncompress" the file we are on.  I thought it would be more
appropriate, since emacs certainly knows more about what it's about to
do, to ask the user "Compress?" or "uncompress?", but not "Compress or
uncompress?" .  Or maybe emacs shouldn't ask so early in the process
if it's not clear yet.  It should at least see if the filename is has
a .Z or whatever, to better frame its question to the user.

Anyways, I took a very brief look at the code and it seems the
following function, though seeming to be a general function by name,
is slightly inelegant by having some compress specific stuff embedded,
whatever.

(defun dired-mark-confirm (op-symbol arg)
  ;; Request confirmation from the user that the operation described
  ;; by OP-SYMBOL is to be performed on the marked files.
  ;; Confirmation consists in a y-or-n question with a file list
  ;; pop-up unless OP-SYMBOL is a member of `dired-no-confirm'.
  ;; The files used are determined by ARG (as in dired-get-marked-files).
  (or (eq dired-no-confirm t)
      (memq op-symbol dired-no-confirm)
      (let ((files (dired-get-marked-files t arg))
            (string (if (eq op-symbol 'compress) "Compress or uncompress"
                      (capitalize (symbol-name op-symbol)))))
        (dired-mark-pop-up nil op-symbol files (function y-or-n-p)
                           (concat string " "
                                   (dired-mark-prompt arg files) "? ")))))
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