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by galdor 1174 days ago
Author of the blog post here. Not only is it still in use, but I rely on it all the time because I find inline evaluation (M-:) unusable for anything but the simplest command. At the very least I want to visualize the output of the command without it being replaced in the echo area by the next message, and I may want to copy it.

And of course now I have a persistent history of all commands.

Thank you!

2 comments

On M-: -- My typical approach is to use the scratch buffer, where I can evaluate multiple things and remember the outcomes, macroexpand etc. So, M-: isn't the only alternative to IELM, but there are also things that scratch doesn't work well with, especially when it comes to figuring out what current buffer is, saving point position, debugging, probably more. So, yeah, for more serious stuff, IELM is better.
There’s also C-h e for those times when you want to review what was displayed in the echo area. Very handy.