Re: kmacro.texi

[Richard Stallman]

Reading your proposed changes to kmacro.texi made me aware that C-x
C-k has become a sort of special command mode, in which many ordinary
commands have special meanings.  That is against the spirit of Emacs,
and going against the spirit of Emacs in something that is rather
obscure and only rarely used is a bad thing.

So I want to get rid of this mode-like feature as it now stands.

However, there is a way it could be implemented, giving similar
results, that would be consistent with the spirit of Emacs: to make
this a major mode.  One command could create a buffer which represents
the macro ring, and switch to it.  That buffer could use a special
major mode in which single-character commands do things like navigate
through this ring.

For instance, if it makes one line per keyboard macro, then moving
point in this buffer could have the effect of rotating the ring.  That
way, C-p and C-n in this buffer would have the desired effect on the
macro ring, merely because they move point (as they usually do) in the
buffer that represents the ring.

Kim, could you work on these changes?
I'd like this feature to be changed before we do a release with it.