Re: I can back up over all kinds of prompts with C-b

[Miles Bader]

desj@math.berkeley.edu (David desJardins) writes:
> Can you explain how this feature could ever be considered useful?  Why
> would I want to move around in the prompt?  I can't ever remember
> wanting to do this in the many years that it was impossible.

The way the minibuffer works was changed, so that prompts are no longer
a hard-wired thing (I think this was a result of the redisplay rewrite).

It obviously would be possible to use other methods (e.g., the way the
`Inviolable' option I mentioned works) to make it work like the old
implementation, but it was decided that people might sometimes want to
copy information out of the prompt etc.  (e.g., the prompt says
"Blorgle the snootherfuudnok: _", and you want to answer
snootherfuudngik).

The implementation as it stand tries to make entering the prompt
something you won't do by accident, but not to prevent you from doing
it on purpose; I think it basically succeeds pretty well at that.

-Miles
-- 
`Cars give people wonderful freedom and increase their opportunities.
 But they also destroy the environment, to an extent so drastic that
 they kill all social life' (from _A Pattern Language_)