Re: Why won't this command kill a buffer?

["B. T. Raven" <nihil@nihilo.net>]

Oops! Same thing should work with backslash rather than backspace. It's
even easier to append a non control character.

B. T. Raven wrote:
> Joe Fineman wrote:
>> I am using Emacs 22.3.1 under Windows XP.  I have used the following
>> kluge for many years:
>>
>> (defun marklog ()
>>   "Insert a backslash into the Log file for the current directory, and into Today if it is in /b."
>>   (interactive)
>>   (save-window-excursion
>>     (let ((dir default-directory)
>> 	  (require-final-newline))
>>       (find-file "~/timing/Logmark")
>>       (write-region 1 2 (concat dir "Log") t 0)
>>       (if (equal (substring dir 0 15) "c:/usr/own/f/b/")
>> 	  (write-region 1 2 "~/b/Today" t 0))
>>       (kill-this-buffer))
>>       ))
>>
>> The Logmark file consists of a single backslash.
>>
>> The command kill-this-buffer does not work, and neither do attempts to
>> use kill-buffer with an argument.  The buffer hangs around and is
>> sometimes a nuisance.
>>
>> And, incidentally, is there any simpler way to tell Emacs to append a
>> character to a file?
> 
> If you really mean "append" (put at the end) then this works
> (on msw2000 with Emacs 22.3):
> 
> "
> append-to-file is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `files.el'.
> It is bound to <f4>.
> (append-to-file START END FILENAME)
> 
> Append the contents of the region to the end of file FILENAME.
> When called from a function, expects three arguments,
> START, END and FILENAME.  START and END are buffer positions
> saying what text to write.
> "
> 
> Interactively I had bound this function to f4 in .emacs
> (define-key global-map [f4] 'append-to-file)
> I made a test file with a few chars in it and saved it.
> Inserted backspace into buffer with C-q *backspacekey* and then made
> that single character (shows as ^?) the region and pressed f4.
> Inspection of the last character of the file appended to shows:
> 
> Char: DEL (127, #o177, #x7f) point=5 of 5 (80%) column=0
> 
> I assume that what can be done interactively can also be done
> programmatically.
> 
> Ed
> 


-- 
Certa igitur cum illo qui a te totus diversus est. [Cic. Acad. 2.32]