Re: Rationale behind conversion of a nil prefix arg to numeric 1

[Florian v. Savigny]

  > Alternatively, for Andreas the axiom "the default value is always 0"
  > holds ;-P

I do sympathise with him, because my question started out supposing
exactly the same thing. It just seems intuitive that nil translates to
the number 0, if any, and when things are intuitive, this is (I think)
generally good.

It all becomes immediately clear when you understand that the numeric
prefix arg has a special purpose, i.e. is conceived as a repeat
counter (and NOT simply a number), but only then. In other words,
`prefix-arg-as-repeat-counter' might be the kind of name that would be
more readily understandable (and would even arguably be more accurate)
than `prefix-numeric-value'.

-- 

Florian von Savigny
Melanchthonstr. 41
33615 Bielefeld