what-char

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>]

New interesting code from uXu!

Have the echo area display the name and old-name (if
available) of the char at point.

Watch out for the argument pos! From Lisp, it means
position. Interactively, it means don't just echo, also kill
the data. But even from Lisp it can be omitted, and point
is used ...

If used interactively, the point number is also echoed, but
not returned or killed.

Tricky? Have no fear - "I" is here.

;; -*- lexical-binding: t -*-
;;
;; this file:
;;   https://dataswamp.org/~incal/emacs-init/char.el

(defun what-char (&optional pos)
  (interactive "P")
  (let*((position (or (and (numberp pos) pos)
                      (point) ))
        (kill pos)
        (char (char-after position)) )
    (when char
      (let*((name     (get-char-code-property char 'name))
            (old-name (get-char-code-property char 'old-name))
            (msg (if (and name old-name)
                     (format "%s (%s)" name old-name)
                   (or name old-name) ))
            (msg-dc (when (stringp msg) (downcase msg))) )
        (when msg-dc
          (prog1 msg-dc
            (when kill (kill-new msg-dc))
            (message "%d: %s" position msg-dc) ))))))

;; (what-char)                     ; "space"
;; (what-char (point-min))         ; "semicolon"
;; (what-char 692)                 ; "left parenthesis (opening parenthesis)"
;; C-u M-x what-char RET* then C-y ; asterisk is inserted
;; M-x what-char RET               ; 1016: line feed (lf)

-- 
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https://dataswamp.org/~incal