RE: Pushing the mark from a primitive like goto-char

[Drew Adams]

> The interactive specification should only 
> gather input, but not perform state changes.

Why?  In what contexts?  Or are you proposing
this as a blanket rule?

The interactive spec is just code evaluated when
the function is invoked interactively, and which
can (but need not) return values to be used as
args for the function.  Nothing more.

The interactive spec can do anything you
need/want it to do.  Likewise, the function's
non-interactive code (aka body).

This is Lisp.  Code can change state.  It's up
to the author - you get the behavior you code.