kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Harry Putnam <hgp@sbcglobal.net> writes:
>
>> After poring over C-h f define-abbrev I got sort of close I guess, but
>> this:
>>
>> (define-abbrev TABLE NAME EXPANSION &optional HOOK COUNT SYSTEM-FLAG)
>>
>> Though its the kind of thing lisp programmers consider the epitome of
>> lucid. Its not very helpfull to laypeople.  No indication of where
>> parens might go or other really usefull stuff.
>>
>> I tried this:
>>
>> (define-abbrev cperl-mode-abbrev-table "hpb" "" hp-pbase 0 )
>
> (define-abbrev cperl-mode-abbrev-table "hpb" "" 'hp-pbase)
>
> Does this work?

Yes.. and thanks.  I'm not sure how long I would have stumbled around
before I hit that particular combination.

>
>> This piece from C-h f:
>>   If EXPANSION is not a string, the abbrev is a special one,
>>   which does not expand in the usual way but only runs HOOK.
>>
>> Kind of sounds like EXPANSION shouldn't be a string at all.  Not even
>> the empty one "".
>
> Yes, try nil instead of "".  You already know more about
> define-abbrev than I do :-)

It doesn't work that way:
 (define-abbrev cperl-mode-abbrev-table "hpb" nil 'hp-pbase)

So I guess the confusing line from C-h f does mean the empty string
("")..

But now that I see how to do it... my abbrev powers have increased by
several orders of magnitude.  Won't be long before: 

 (define-abbrev cperl-mode-abbrev-table "npscr" "" 'hp-newp)

Will insert a functional debugged full bore search  application.

Oh, how might I have spotted the correct syntax.. from the help
provided?