dired's marks helped me execute all the files on my system

[Dan Jacobson]

Oh, just wanted to let you know my latest "! on dired marked files"
fiasco, as it was so entertaining.  No fault of emacs.  Just
the monthly or so pilot error.

Normally I have ! in dired set to do validate, e.g., I put the cursor
on opensrs.html, hit ! RET, and the file gets HTML validated.  Here's
what the prompt looks like.

! on opensrs.html: [validate --emacs]

Oddly, I have just cut and pasted this from the minibuffer into gnus,
and notice C-e and C-a act funny still in it even after I have pasted
it into gnus.

Anyway, today I had marked 74 files in dired, so my routine of putting
the cursor on an .html file and hitting ! RET caused me to _execute_
all 74 files [yes, I didn't notice that the prompt was different, my
fault.  Anyway, doesn't _executing_ lots of files remind you of that
other leading brand operating system "oh blast, it has executed the
mail attachment"]

Anyways, things were really jumping here with me executing 74 files.
Before you knew it I had already computed

Jupiter's moons.  Julian day: 2452362.500000
         08:00:00 local on 03/29/2002 == 00:00:00 UT on 03/29/2002
                                      08e     i     g c
                                      09 e   i       c
                                      10  e i        c
                                      11   e        c g


Made

My personal dweebstar star rise/set profile,
    printed Thu 03 28 20:18:00 CST 2002 (c)2001 GNU/GPL

Found an error
comp/at_xmessage.txt: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `;'

Computed the romanization of all place names in northern Taiwan

Computed the grid location of electric pole markers [my hobby]

Computed Antipodes:
geo/antipodes/gmt.txt -5 40 6 for New Zelanders to visit their antipodes in 
Spain
geo/antipodes/gmt.txt -157 21 7 Hawaii -- Botswana
geo/antipodes/gmt.txt 120 25 50 shows all of South American antipodes in Asia

comp/phonecombo.txt: 1: parameter null or not set
otherwise would have found what words your phone number can spell.

etc.

Anyways, how exciting.  Yes, pilot error.  Good thing I have no file
that does bad things when executed, as the way things are going, I am
certain that certainly sooner or later every executable file on my
system will be executed sooner or later, the way things are going.
[yes, today I only executed 74, despite my eye-catching Subject]

Yes, "1!" instead of "!" avoids the undesired behavior.  Say, wouldn't
it be safer to have the 1! behavior be the default of ! instead of the
74! or whatever behavior, which should require extra typing effort on
the part of the user, instead of the other way around.  Is there some
new default we can put in place to put the burden of typing extra on
those who want extra, instead of the other way around?

That way the ! would now have consistent behavior -- acting on one
file unless specially qualified, say with *.  Oh, I see "*!" is already
used by something else.  Ok, how about "%!"?

I mean most of the time ! operates on one file, until the days when
you mark --- then forget you marked -- some files.  Then all the
sudden it acts on 74 files.
-- 
http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780