Re: how-many/count-matches for non-interactive use

[Stefan Monnier]

>> It seems that interactive-p as currently defined is very rarely useful
>> -- perhaps never.  Perhaps we should change interactive-p to ignore
>> whether the command is running from a macro and do what most people
>> seem to expect.

>     I think we should declare it obsolete because the alternative (of
>     adding an argument) is always clearer, less brittle, and allows
>     callers better control.

> Before we say it is obsolete, we had better see if anyone does really
> want it.  It would be very good for someone to determine which, if
> any, of the current uses of interactive-p really want the current
> behavior of interactive-p.

The current behavior can still be obtained without interactive-p by checking
executing-macro.  Doing it that way also has the advantage of being much
more clear.
I doubt anybody used interactive-p rather than an extra argument just
because of the subtle difference w.r.t keyboard macros.  I expect 99% of the
people who used interactive-p haven't even thought about the interaction
with keyboard macros.


        Stefan