emacs dired: unable to view deletion list

[Xah Lee]

this seems to be a UI bug.

in dired, type ~ to flag backup files. Then, type x to delete them.
Dired will prompt you with “Delete D [251 files] (y or n)” with a list
of files to be deleted on the top pane.

However, when you have more files to fit in a window, part of the list
is not visible, and there's no way to view them. You can't page up/
down, cant scroll it. I haven't found a way to view it.

anyone got a method?

Xah

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Xah Lee <xah...@gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2011 13:17:46 -0700 (PDT)

>
> this seems to be a UI bug.

No, it's a feature ;-)

C-M-v or M-PgDn work for me.

[Xah Lee]

Thanks!

that's odd... something not apparent in my customization is doing
it... could it dired-plus?

Xah

[Drew Adams]

> > C-M-v or M-PgDn work for me.
>
> Thanks! that's odd... something not apparent in my
> customization is doing it... could it dired-plus?

I don't think so. With Dired+ I can use C-M-v and C-M-S-v this way without a
problem.

Just a thought: The part of the list that is not shown, at least for me, is the
upper part. Eli's suggestion of `C-M-v' does nothing in that case, since you
are already at the bottom. Did you try `C-M-S-v' (aka `C-M-V') to scroll up
instead of down?

[Xah Lee]

Thanks Drew.

Found the problem. It is

(defalias 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

though, odd it should be that way. This can be considered a bug?

Xah

[Drew Adams]

> Thanks Drew. Found the problem. It is
> (defalias 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)
> though, odd it should be that way. This can be considered a bug?

You might report a usability bug, to see what the Emacs developers think.

My guess, without looking too far, is that this is because `y-or-n-p' reads a
key directly (using `read-key') and looks it up in keymap `query-replace-map'.
The key sequences `C-M-v' and `C-M-V' are not defined there, and it doesn't seem
to look beyond that map. In that map it only handles certain keys (see the
`cond' in `y-or-n-p').

These are the keys available in the keymap:

,----
| query-replace-map
| -----------------
|
| Keymap that defines the responses to questions in `query-replace'.
| The "bindings" in this map are not commands; they are answers.
| The valid answers include `act', `skip', `act-and-show',
| `exit', `act-and-exit', `edit', `delete-and-edit', `recenter',
| `automatic', `backup', `exit-prefix', and `help'.
|
| key binding
| --- -------
|
| C-g quit
| C-h help
| C-l recenter
| RET exit
| C-r edit
| C-w delete-and-edit
| ESC exit-prefix
| C-] quit
| SPC act
| ! automatic
| , act-and-show
| . act-and-exit
| ? help
| E edit-replacement
| N skip
| Y act
| ^ backup
| e edit-replacement
| n skip
| q exit
| y act
| DEL skip
| <backspace> skip
| <delete> skip
| <escape> exit-prefix
| <f1> help
| <help> help
| <return> exit
|
| [back]
`----

HTH

[Xah Lee]

thanks Drew. I filed a bug report. Subject: possible bug: Delete File
List Not Visible when yes-or-no aliased to y-or-n-p

don't know the bug number yet.

Xah

[Sean Sieger]

Xah Lee <xah...@gmail.com> writes:
thanks Drew. I filed a bug report. Subject: possible bug: Delete File
List Not Visible when yes-or-no aliased to y-or-n-p

don't know the bug number yet.

I noticed that the post didn't include a number in the subject line.

[Xah Lee]

On Apr 4, 6:59 am, "B. T. Raven" <ni...@nihilo.net> wrote:

> Could that specific problem be avoided by reassigning via fset rather
> than defalias?:
>
> (fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)
>
> Ed

interesting suggestion. Haven't used fset before, might be useful.

it didn't help in this case though.

PS the bug number is http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=8418

Xah