Re: info inconsistency about "Shell Commands in Dired"

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     My '' suggestion wanted to implement a similar trick for the opposite
>     problem, where one wants ? to be expanded without having to surround
>     it by whitespace.
> 
> I see.
> 
>     But I am not so sure about my suggestion any more.  Some users might
>     currently be using ?'' or *'' instead of the suggested ?"" or *"" to
>     prevent expansion by Emacs and insert an isolated ? or * as a
>     wildcard.
> 
> We need not hesitate to make incompatible changes in little
> interactive commands like this.  The question is what interface is
> best to use.

Bind * to insert a text-propertied (and thus recognizable and
copy&pastable) x character with the display property of "<filename>".
If people really need * itself, they can insert it using C-q *.

Other keybindings might be imaginable.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum