Re: query-replace-interactive not documented

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     What do you think about documenting `query-replace-regexp-eval'
>     in the Emacs manual even without a keybinding?
> 
> The reason I did not document it before is that I'm not sure it is
> really very useful.  I never use it.  How many people here actually
> use it?

I do.  One typical qpplication is

M-x query-replace-regexp-eval RET
\\footnote{ RET
(format "\\footnote{\\label{fn:%d}" replace-count) RET

Also other stuff where you want to replace with numerical expressions.

Of course, most of these uses could be avoided if the replacement
string of the ordinary query-replace-regexp would offer, say

M-x query-replace-regexp RET
\\footnote{ RET
\\footnote{\\label{fn:\!replace-count} RET

or

\\footnote{\\label{fn:\!(format "%d" replace-count)} RET

Namely \! followed by a sexp.  This would allow the full flexibility
of query-replace-regexp-eval without needing a separate command, and
one would need to switch to Lisp only for the really needed passages
instead of the whole replacement string.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum