Scroll message history in echo area

Question

I want to use commands/keybindings to quickly view and scroll recent messages in the echo area, without visiting the Messages buffer. For example, suppose I received messages:

Time is 15:00:01
Time is 15:00:03
Time is 15:00:04

• echo area displays: Time is 15:00:04
• press key (eg. M-p)
• echo area displays: Time is 15:00:03
• press key (eg. M-n)
• echo area displays: Time is 15:00:04

Answer 1

Here is a rudimentary attempt at such a thing,

(defun my:peek-messages (clear)
  (interactive "P")
  (when (or (not (bound-and-true-p my:messages-stack)) clear)
    (setq
      my:messages-stack
      (butlast (split-string
        (with-current-buffer "*Messages*"
          (buffer-string)) "\n"))))
  (let ((message-log-max nil))
    (message (car (last my:messages-stack))))
  (setq my:messages-stack (butlast my:messages-stack)))

Bind this to M-p and it does what you want. Now, there is a caveat. To make the function start displaying from the last message again, you have to C-u M-p. I. e., set the prefix argument.