Re: address@hidden: Re: map-y-or-n does not use minibuffer-prompt face]

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     Since then Lennart has pointed out that several other minibuffer
>     prompts also lack fontification, notably isearch, query-replace, and
>     y-or-n-p.
>
>     Shall we fix those too?
>
> Isearch, definitely.
>
> However, now I have second thoughts about this for map-y-or-n.  The
> main purpose of this face is to more clearly separate the prompt from
> the input that follows it.  That purpose does not apply to y-or-n-p,
> or to map-y-or-n.  However, to the extent that this face also helps
> show the user that Emacs is asking some sort of question, it is useful
> to use the face for other kinds of questions.
>
> So, should we use it for y-or-n-p and map-y-or-n and query-replace,
> or not?

To easier see the impact of this, I set the bold attribute on the
minibuffer-prompt face -- actually quite nice effect IMO.  It makes
the _questions_ in the minibuffer stand out from ordinary _messages_
in the echo area.

With this setting, it seems rather odd that SOME questions are
asked in the minibuffer-prompt face, and other are not.

E.g. doing M-% a RET b RET

Asks three questions:

1) Query replace:
2) Query replace a by:
3) Query replace a by b (? for help):

The first two are in minibuffer-prompt, the third is not,
so it does not stand out as a question.  IMO that's a bug.

Similar for y-or-n-p questions ...  they require user attention
so they should be in the minibuffer-prompt face.

Otherwise, we need some other face for such questions (e.g.
a `question' face.) which are for y-or-n-p and yes-and-no-p
It could by default be derived from minibuffer-prompt face.

But for now, I think minibuffer-prompt face is sufficient.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk