Re: Writing an interactive function to accept a string argument, then call a Python script?

["Endless Story" <usable.thought@gmail.com>]

On Feb 13, 6:20 am, Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodg...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Just curious: Is the `M' interactive code necessary in your experience?
> I've always just used `s'.

Well, since I was hacking it out blindly, I grabbed the first thing I
saw in the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual that looked like it should
work. I guess M is fancier than s, but both will work in this instance
- from the manual:

     'M'
     Arbitrary text, read in the minibuffer using the current buffer's
input method,
     and returned as a string (see Input Methods). Prompt.

     's'
     Arbitrary text, read in the minibuffer and returned as a string
(see Text from
     Minibuffer). Terminate the input with either C-j or <RET>. (C-q
may be used
     to include either of these characters in the input.) Prompt.

Meanwhile, since you're into lisp, I have a question for you: Would
there be any real advantage to my learning it, aside from customizing
Emacs beyond the things that other people have done that I can find on
the Web? My impression is that the answer is no. I'm really just a
writer who stumbled into scripting by accident, during a few years
when I was documenting software as a technical writer. I enjoy
fiddling with code mostly to automate various things I do with text
processing. Python has been perfect for this purpose - easy to learn,
easy to put down and then pick up again every few months as needed. I
once thought about learning lisp - in fact I went so far as to buy
"The Little Schemer" - but in the end I decided I could no more afford
to take the time to learn it than I could continue to learn C, which I
once dabbled in briefly for fun.