fill-paragraph from elisp

fill-paragraph from elisp

[Eike Kettner]

Hello list,

I want to insert some text from a database into a buffer. This should
happen with `fill-paraph' applied, and the string contains multiple
paragraphs. I came up with this (`descr' is the string):

(let ((beg (point)))
  (insert descr)
  (set-mark beg)
  (fill-paragraph nil t)
  (set-mark nil))

This works, but I'm not feeling confident with it. The documentation of
`set-mark' says this:

    ...Novice Emacs Lisp programmers often try to use the mark for the
    wrong purposes. ...

So.. I'm a novice elisp programmer. Is this a "wrong purpose"? What is
the idiomatic way to achieve this?

Thanks and regards
Eike

--
gpg: AD7AC35E
finger print: 137F BB0B 1639 D25F DC5D  E59C B412 C5F5 AD7A C35E

RE: fill-paragraph from elisp

[Drew Adams]

> (let ((beg (point)))
>   (insert descr)
>   (set-mark beg)
>   (fill-paragraph nil t)
>   (set-mark nil))
> 
> What is the idiomatic way to achieve this?

Use `narrow-to-region' to operate on the text between two positions.

Re: fill-paragraph from elisp

[Eike Kettner]

Thanks for your answer! I just found out, that I completely missed the
`fill-region' function… I read the doc-string of `fill-paragraph'
multiple times and yet, I managed to ignore it.

It turns out that (fill-region start end) is what I want.

I'm sorry for the noise and confusion.

Regards
Eike

Drew Adams writes:

>> (let ((beg (point)))
>>   (insert descr)
>>   (set-mark beg)
>>   (fill-paragraph nil t)
>>   (set-mark nil))
>>
>> What is the idiomatic way to achieve this?
>
> Use `narrow-to-region' to operate on the text between two positions.

--
gpg: AD7AC35E
finger print: 137F BB0B 1639 D25F DC5D  E59C B412 C5F5 AD7A C35E