Re: Making `interactive' conditional

[Stefan Monnier]

> That does sound kinda exciting.  To take a random example, `M-x
> delete-matching-lines' could have a :when of `buffer-writable-p' and not
> auto-complete when in a read-only buffer.  Etc.

I'd be wary of going too far down that road: I often want to modify
read-only buffers 'cause I hadn't realized they're still read-only.
In that case, not finding the command in M-x would make me lose a lot
more time (looking for the damn command, under the assumption that
I just misremember it) than getting a clear "beep!  buffer is
read-only!" after which I can C-x C-q and move on.

> Hm...  I think that sounds a bit too magical to be workable in general.

That's exactly what I thought when I read the suggestion to omit
delete-matching-lines in read-only buffers.


        Stefan