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

[Luc Teirlinck]

Richard Stallman wrote:

   It is not a no-op, but it is not correct either.  These commands as
   currently written would behave incorrectly in some cases in a keyboard
   macro.

I do not believe so (I checked).  I still believe those lines are
no-ops and should simply be deleted, like my patch does.

       (interactive "r\nNSet left margin to column: ")
   !   (setq width (prefix-numeric-value width))

That second line is redundant.  The `N' code character already _gives_ the
numeric value.

   Your approach to the first two is to delete the call to
   prefix-numeric-value.  As far as I can see, that would extend the
   bug to the non-macro case.

I do not believe so.  I checked.  The `N' already gives the numeric value.

   !   (setq inc (if inc (prefix-numeric-value current-prefix-arg)
   !          standard-indent))

That would appear wrong for non-interactive calls.  For such calls
`current-prefix-arg' would not give the prefix arg of
`increase-right-margin', but of whichever function was actually called
interactively (and then directly or indirectly called
`increase-right-margin').

The line I used:

!   (setq inc (if inc (prefix-numeric-value inc) standard-indent)

is the _same_ line that is used in the three other completely analogous
functions in indent.el.  If there is something wrong with that line
for `increase-right-margin', then there would be something wrong in
the three other {in,de}crease-{left,right}-margin functions.  I
believe we need to use consistent code in all four.  Anything else
would appear to make no sense.

I still believe my original patch is the logical solution in all three
cases.

>From (elisp)Interactive Codes: 

`N'
     The numeric prefix argument; but if there is no prefix argument,
     read a number as with `n'.  Requires a number.  *Note Prefix
     Command Arguments::.  Prompt.

Note: The numeric prefix argument;

Sincerely,

Luc.