Re: defalias chmod for set-file-modes ?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Miles Bader writes:

 > It might be nice to have a few other command such aliases, e.g., mkdir
 > => make-directory.

Commands are functions, and people will start using these aliases in
programs because they're used to using them from Unix shells and
they're shorter.  Is that desirable?

IMHO not, even to a 35-year Unix veteran surely "make-directory" is as
readable as "mkdir" and "M-x mak<TAB>d<RET>" is no longer than "M-x
mkdir<RET>" (though for true speed daemons "M-x mk<TAB>" is indeed
shorter).  What's wrong with

(define-abbrev lisp-mode-abbrev-table "mkdir" "make-directory")

and use of completion to save on typing?  It's not like make-directory
or set-file-attributes is a command used several score times in most
editing sessions, and if you *are* going to be doing that a whole lot,
aren't key sequences like "+" and "M" as short as you're gonna get?