Non-character input events

Non-character input events

[Joe Fineman]

When a routine I have written is expecting a character & instead sees
(e.g.) one of the function keys on the keyboard, it complains that it
has seen a non-character input event.  Presumably, therefore, Emacs
has some way of recognizing such events.  Where is the documentation
for that?  "Apropos" yields nothing, and info merely admits that they
exist.  I know how to bind commands to those keys, but only thru
chitchat in newsgroups (monkey see, monkey do).  What do I do if I am
writing Elisp code and want it to do something other than beep when it
encounters an f1?
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    jcf@TheWorld.com

||:  Majority rule is not a way of getting right answers; it is a  :||
||:  way of avoiding civil war.                                    :||

Re: Non-character input events

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Joe Fineman <jcf@TheWorld.com>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: 20 Mar 2003 18:21:13 -0500
> 
> When a routine I have written is expecting a character & instead sees
> (e.g.) one of the function keys on the keyboard, it complains that it
> has seen a non-character input event.  Presumably, therefore, Emacs
> has some way of recognizing such events.  Where is the documentation
> for that?  "Apropos" yields nothing, and info merely admits that they
> exist.

In general, when you need some information for writing ELisp, you
should first look in the ELisp manual.  Type "i input events RET" when
in that manual, and read the chapter you will land in.

Re: Non-character input events

[Joe Fineman]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

> > From: Joe Fineman <jcf@TheWorld.com>
> > Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> > Date: 20 Mar 2003 18:21:13 -0500
> > 
> > When a routine I have written is expecting a character & instead
> > sees (e.g.) one of the function keys on the keyboard, it complains
> > that it has seen a non-character input event.  Presumably,
> > therefore, Emacs has some way of recognizing such events.  Where
> > is the documentation for that?  "Apropos" yields nothing, and info
> > merely admits that they exist.

> In general, when you need some information for writing ELisp, you
> should first look in the ELisp manual.  Type "i input events RET"
> when in that manual, and read the chapter you will land in.

Which Elisp manual is that?  I have downloaded both the version 21.2
manual and the version 20.3 manual from the Gnu Web site, and each
contains only one bare mention of input events. 
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    jcf@TheWorld.com

||:  There's no foolishness like old foolishness.  :||

Re: Non-character input events

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Joe Fineman <jcf@TheWorld.com>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: 23 Mar 2003 20:59:10 -0500
> 
> > In general, when you need some information for writing ELisp, you
> > should first look in the ELisp manual.  Type "i input events RET"
> > when in that manual, and read the chapter you will land in.
> 
> Which Elisp manual is that?  I have downloaded both the version 21.2
> manual and the version 20.3 manual from the Gnu Web site, and each
> contains only one bare mention of input events.

The latest released version of ELisp manual is here:

  ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-21-2.8.tar.gz

Re: Non-character input events

[Kevin Rodgers]

Joe Fineman wrote:

> Which Elisp manual is that?  I have downloaded both the version 21.2
> manual and the version 20.3 manual from the Gnu Web site, and each
> contains only one bare mention of input events. 

Even the venerable 19.34 elisp manual contains this:


File: elisp,  Node: Input Events,  Next: Reading Input,  Prev: Command Loop 
Info,  Up: Command Loop

Input Events
============

    The Emacs command loop reads a sequence of "input events" that
represent keyboard or mouse activity.  The events for keyboard activity
are characters or symbols; mouse events are always lists.  This section
describes the representation and meaning of input events in detail.

  - Function: eventp OBJECT
      This function returns non-`nil' if OBJECT is an input event.

* Menu:

* Keyboard Events::		Ordinary characters-keys with symbols on them.
* Function Keys::		Function keys-keys with names, not symbols.
* Mouse Events::                Overview of mouse events.
* Click Events::		Pushing and releasing a mouse button.
* Drag Events::			Moving the mouse before releasing the button.
* Button-Down Events::		A button was pushed and not yet released.
* Repeat Events::               Double and triple click (or drag, or down).
* Motion Events::		Just moving the mouse, not pushing a button.
* Focus Events::		Moving the mouse between frames.
* Misc Events::                 Other events window systems can generate.
* Event Examples::		Examples of the lists for mouse events.
* Classifying Events::		Finding the modifier keys in an event symbol.
				Event types.
* Accessing Events::		Functions to extract info from events.
* Strings of Events::           Special considerations for putting
				  keyboard character events in a string.

-- 
<a href="mailto:&lt;kevin.rodgers&#64;ihs.com&gt;">Kevin Rodgers</a>

Re: Non-character input events

[Joe Fineman]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

> > From: Joe Fineman <jcf@TheWorld.com>
> > Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> > Date: 23 Mar 2003 20:59:10 -0500
> > 
> > > In general, when you need some information for writing ELisp, you
> > > should first look in the ELisp manual.  Type "i input events RET"
> > > when in that manual, and read the chapter you will land in.
> > 
> > Which Elisp manual is that?  I have downloaded both the version 21.2
> > manual and the version 20.3 manual from the Gnu Web site, and each
> > contains only one bare mention of input events.
> 
> The latest released version of ELisp manual is here:
> 
>   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-21-2.8.tar.gz

Thank you.  I am always interested in exploring the causes & limits of
my cluelessness, so I went back to the Web site to see how I had missed
that file.  As far as I can tell, it isn't mentioned.  How was I
supposed to find it without bothering busy people?
-- 
---  Joe Fineman    jcf@TheWorld.com

||:  A job is a slot in a machine for occupation by a human  :||
||:  being who would rather be elsewhere.                    :||

Re: Non-character input events

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Joe Fineman <jcf@TheWorld.com>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: 25 Mar 2003 18:38:42 -0500
> > 
> >   ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-21-2.8.tar.gz
> 
> Thank you.  I am always interested in exploring the causes & limits of
> my cluelessness, so I went back to the Web site to see how I had missed
> that file.  As far as I can tell, it isn't mentioned.  How was I
> supposed to find it without bothering busy people?

You didn't bother anyone, as far as I could tell.  It's not a crime to
not know someting.

The latest version of Emacs (v21.3) mentions that file in the INSTALL
file, and the development sources have the ELisp manual merged with
the Emacs distribution, so beginning with a future release installing
Emacs will install the ELisp manual automatically.