Re: Expected macro behavior (was: Macros don't work in Dired)

[deja8501]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@is.elta.co.il> wrote in message 
news:<7263-Sun19Aug2001091605+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il>...
> As others wrote, it should probably be possible to extend the macros
> so that when the macro ends, input is switched back to the normal
> source.  But this will only handle cases where the missing input is
> something required as the last thing in the macro playback.

Yes, but I think it could be useful nevertheless if it's not too hard
to implement. It would make more sense from the user's point of view
if a macro would not abort in case of incomplete input, but rather
keep processing until possible and then leave it to the user to
provide the remaining input.

Implementing something with hooks is not always trivial. In case of my
example (offer a default filename when renaming in Dired, but only for
renaming, not for copying, etc.) implementing it with a macro is much
more simple than hacking advices for dired functions.

If I'm not mistaken modifying macro behavior like this would be
backward compatible and it would broaden the possibilities of macro
usage, making it more useful for novices who are not used to lisp
hacking.