no alternative file name for saving in Ediff

[Frederik Fouvry]

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In GNU Emacs 21.1.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit)
 of 2001-11-07 on cc.at.coli.uni-sb.de
configured using `configure  --with-pop --prefix=/usr'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

I merge two files in Ediff, and I save the file (w c).  Then I get a
directory presented in the minibuffer ("~/.calendar/").  I hit return.
Then I'm told "~/.calendar/" already exists.  It was unclear whether
it meant the directory (in which case writing would fail; if it were a
link to a directory it might replace the link with the file).  So I
reply `n' to the question if I want to replace it.  And then it seems
to have become impossible to write again, and make another attempt (w
c just tells me that the file is read-only).

Am I using it the wrong way (I couldn't find anything to that effect),
or can this be a bug?

I'm happy to provide more details should this not be sufficient.

Recent input:
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <tools> 
<ediff-merge> <ediff-merge-files> ~ / . c a l <tab> 
t o <tab> <return> / t m p / . c a l <tab> t o <tab> 
<return> n a n a n w c <return> n w c w c q C-g q y 
C-x 1 <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> 
<help-menu> <report-emacs-bug>

Recent messages:
Saving old diff region #2 of buffer C.  To recover, type `r' [2 times]

Loading diff-mode...
Loading easy-mmode...done
Loading diff-mode...done
basic-save-buffer: Canceled
ediff-exec-process: Buffer is read-only: #<buffer *ediff-custom-diff*> [2 times]
ediff-quit: Quit
 [2 times]
Loading emacsbug...done

Many thanks,

-- 
Frederik Fouvry     Universit=8e4t des Saarlandes, Computerlinguistik
Geb=8e4ude 17/3.02 - Postfach 15 11 50 - D-66041 Saarbr=8fccken, Germany
telephone: +49(0)681 302 4176        facsimile: +49(0)681 302 4700
fouvry@coli.uni-sb.de           http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/~fouvry/