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Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts


From: Matthew Mundell
Subject: Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts
Date: 15 Apr 2004 12:42:10 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50

Stefan Reichör <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi!
> 
> I am currently working on xtla.el (the arch interface for emacs).
> 
> In my mode the user is often asked some questions in the
> minibuffer. Sometimes the questions need some more
> explanations. So I decided to put the needed help in the
> function's docstring.

Here's a function called `question' which may be of use.

It allows the responses to an interactive question to be defined,
including a help response and associated help string.  The patch
includes a change to `shell-command' to use `question', in the way
suggested for the `compile' command by Dan Jacobson (in the attached
mail).  This allows `shell-command' to start concurrent asynchronous
shell commands.

The function `may-y-or-n-p' may also be useful.

Note that `question' will need dialog popup additions to be better
analogous to yes-or-no-p.

===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/emacs/emacs/lisp/simple.el,v
retrieving revision 1.634
diff -u -r1.634 simple.el
--- lisp/simple.el      25 Mar 2004 16:01:37 -0000      1.634
+++ lisp/simple.el      15 Apr 2004 11:14:47 -0000
@@ -1227,6 +1227,62 @@
             '(0 . 0)))
     '(0 . 0)))
 
+(defvar question-history nil)
+
+(defun question (prompt &optional responses help-response)
+"Prompt with PROMPT for a response from RESPONSES.
+
+RESPONSES is an alist associating responses with returns.  Each
+member of RESPONSES is of the form (\"response\" . return).  For
+example '((\"yes\" . t) (\"no\" . n)).  The return can be
+anything except nil, which is used when searching the list.
+
+HELP-RESPONSE is a cons cell with a response as its car and a
+help string as its cdr.  If the help response is entered the
+string is displayed in the other buffer and prompting continues.
+
+If only PROMPT is given `yes-or-no-p' is called with PROMPT as
+its argument."
+  (if responses
+      (let ((options))
+       ;; add alternatives to prompt
+       (let (rest (answers (if help-response
+                               (append responses (list help-response))
+       
+                     responses)))
+         (while answers
+           (setq options
+                 (concat options
+                         (if (prog1 rest (setq rest t))
+                             (if (cdr answers)
+                                 (concat ", "
+                                         (car (car answers)))
+                               (concat " or "
+                                       (car (car answers))))
+                           (car (car answers)))))
+           (setq answers (cdr answers))))
+       (setq prompt (concat prompt "(" options ") "))
+       ;; return the value associated with a prompted response
+       (cdr (let (ret rsp)
+                (while (not
+                        (setq ret (assoc (setq rsp (read-from-minibuffer
+                                                    prompt nil nil nil
+                                                    question-history nil
+                                                    nil))
+                                         responses)))
+                  (if (and help-response
+                           (equal rsp (car help-response)))
+                      (with-output-to-temp-buffer "*Help*"
+                        (princ (cdr help-response))
+                        (with-current-buffer standard-output
+                          (help-mode)))
+                    (ding)
+                    (discard-input)
+                    (message "Please answer %s." options)
+                    (sleep-for 2 nil)))
+                  ret)))
+    (yes-or-no-p prompt)))
+
 (defvar shell-command-history nil
   "History list for some commands that read shell commands.")
 
@@ -1356,9 +1412,23 @@
                ;; If will kill a process, query first.
                (setq proc (get-buffer-process buffer))
                (if proc
-                   (if (yes-or-no-p "A command is running.  Kill it? ")
-                       (kill-process proc)
-                     (error "Shell command in progress")))
+                   (let ((res (question
+                               "A command is running.  Kill it? "
+                               '(("yes" . t) ("no" . no) ("r" . run))
+                               '("?" . "An asynchronous command is already 
running in the \"*Async Shell Command*\" buffer.
+Enter
+  \"yes\"  to kill the running command, replacing it with the new one,
+  \"no\"   to quit, leaving the current command running, or
+  \"r\"    to run the new command in parallel in a uniquely-named buffer."))))
+                     (cond
+                      ((eq res 'run)
+                       (setq buffer (get-buffer-create
+                                     (generate-new-buffer-name
+                                      (buffer-name buffer)))))
+                      ((eq res t) (kill-process proc))
+                      ((eq res 'no) (error "Shell command in progress"))
+                      ;; question-p prevents this case
+                      (t (error "Error processing response")))))
                (with-current-buffer buffer
                  (setq buffer-read-only nil)
                  (erase-buffer)



--- Begin Message --- Subject: A Compilation process is running; kill it? (yes or no) Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 10:13:35 +0800 User-agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux)
When attempting a second compilation, instead of asking
A Compilation process is running; kill it? (yes or no)
ask
A Compilation process is running;a kill it? (yes or q)
which is more telling instead of "no".  Better yet, ask
A Compilation process is running; kill it? (yes, c, q, ?)
c - launch a parallel compilation.

--- End Message ---

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