From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim Josling Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs internals + lisp guru question Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 17:50:07 +1000 Organization: Melbourne PC User Group Sender: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <3D96B0AF.E2E3416B@melbpc.org.au> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1033286797 11360 127.0.0.1 (29 Sep 2002 08:06:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 08:06:37 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 17vZ63-0002x6-00 for ; Sun, 29 Sep 2002 10:06:36 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 17vZ6I-0007Yx-00; Sun, 29 Sep 2002 04:06:50 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!nntp.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!enews.sgi.com!news.xtra.co.nz!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.melbpc.org.au!news.melbpc.org.au!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.lang.lisp,gnu.utils.help,comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer Original-Lines: 39 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: b3-203-12-156-164.melbpc.org.au Original-X-Trace: possum.melbpc.org.au 1033286120 11580 203.12.156.164 (29 Sep 2002 07:55:20 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@melbpc.org.au Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 07:55:20 +0000 (UTC) X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.18-3 i686) X-Accept-Language: en Original-Xref: nntp.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:105475 comp.lang.lisp:94912 gnu.utils.help:4051 comp.unix.shell:133533 comp.unix.programmer:143488 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:2020 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:2020 gnuist006 wrote: > > There are some functions that take a list as argument. > Text can be read from the buffer as a string. > There are some functions that take a "symbol" as an argument. > A string can be converted to a symbol. > However, when symbol is provided to the function by converting a string > it is not working. > > For example: > > (describe-function quoted-SYMBOL) works > (make-symbol "describe-function") works > > but > > (describe-function (make-symbol "describe-function")) is not working. > > Is there a way to fix it? > > How can we get the code of describe-function? > > What is the meaning of the gibberish from > (insert (format "%s" (symbol-function 'describe-function) )) > > What is out there to learn more about emacs/emacs_lisp and become more > sophisticated? > > Many thanks to the gurus and novices for their very kind contributions. There are manuals for emacs and for emacs lisp all over the net. You can download them or read them online. Any linux CD would also have the source and document. If you do c-h a ,, and then click on help in the other buffer it will show you the source for describe-function and the rest of the help module. Tim Josling