bug#16828: 24.3.50; eval-expression, character representation of integer results time-consuming

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: npostavs@users.sourceforge.net
> Cc: 16828@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2017 10:55:44 -0400
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> >
> >> > So, under this proposal, is there any way to get the character for a
> >> > single invocation of M-:, without setting the option, if I only need
> >> > that sometimes?  Should there be such a way?
> >> 
> >> Isn't M-: (prin1-char value) sufficient?
> >
> > No, not after years of using "M-: #xNNNN RET".
> 
> If you want to keep muscle memory,
> 
>     (setq eval-expression-print-maximum-character most-positive-fixnum)
> 
> should give you back the old behaviour.  If you only want this only some
> of the time, perhaps we should add a toggle-print-maximum-character
> command?

What about a special value of prefix argument, like zero?  If that's
OK, it's more convenient than any of the above.