Re: & and M-& to run programs asynchronously

[Juri Linkov]

>>> I suppose the next step is to do the same for async-shell-command and
>>> bind it to M-& That's in simple.el. A function can read the user's
>>> input, add "&", and pass the command to shell-command.
>>
>> This can be done with the following patch that adds a new command
>> `async-shell-command'.  I also noticed that code that sets
>> `minibuffer-default-add-shell-commands' could be moved from the
>> interactive spec of `shell-command' to `read-shell-command' so this
>> feature will be available for all functions that read a shell command
>> from the minibuffer (including a new command `async-shell-command').
>
> This is not such a trivial change, since M-& is bound elsewhere in a
> couple of modes.

I know only that it is bound in the Gnus Summary buffer.  But Gnus is
notorious for its abuse of keybindings, so I think this should not be
a reason not to use `M-&' globally.

> Let's leave this for after the release.

There is no hurry with this, so we could install only a new command
without a keybinding, or postpone everything for after the release.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/