Re: Smarter M-x that filters on major-mode

[jao]

On Fri, Feb 12 2021, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> "Jose A. Ortega Ruiz" <jao@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> You probably have already thought of it, and discarded it for a good
>> reason, but why not, instead of a new `command' form, just add a new
>> (optional) argument to `interactive'?
>>
>>   (defun foo2 (arg)
>>    (interactive "p" c-mode)
>>    (message "%s 2" arg))
>
> The argument to `interactive' is optional, so it'd be
>
>   (defun foo2 ()
>    (interactive nil c-mode)
>
> in most of the cases, which seemed less than ideal.  But on the other
> hand, not introducing a new keyword would perhaps help with reading
> comprehension.

it's perhaps more tricky, but it could also be

     (interactive 'c-mode)

which is distinguisable from a string or a form:

     (interactive "p")
     (interactive (list a b))

i.e., one adopts the convention that if the argument's value is a
symbol, it denotes a mode.  personally, i would like that option even
better, but i'd understand people might consider it a bit brittle.