Passing Multiplie Arguments in the mini buffer

Passing Multiplie Arguments in the mini buffer

[exits funnel]

Hello,

I'm having trouble figuring out how to pass more than
a single argument interactively to a function in the
minibuffer.  I've checked in the emacs manual as well
as googled but I still can't find it.  Imagine for
example, that I want to issue move-to-column to put
point at column 17 on the current line.  I can do
this:

C-u 17 M-x move-to-column

However, according to it's doc string move-to-column
takes, in addition to the first argument, a second
optional one.  How can I pass this second argument if
I'm issuing the function interactively?  Thanks in
advance for any replies!

-exits


		
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Re: Passing Multiplie Arguments in the mini buffer

[Kai Grossjohann]

exits funnel <exitsfunnel@yahoo.com> writes:

> However, according to it's doc string move-to-column
> takes, in addition to the first argument, a second
> optional one.  How can I pass this second argument if
> I'm issuing the function interactively?

I think there is no obvious way.  Of course, you can cheat by doing

    M-: (move-to-column 42 t) RET

But that's, well, cheating.  Please note that M-: and M-x are not the
same.  I really meant M-:.

Kai

Re: Passing Multiplie Arguments in the mini buffer

[exits funnel]

--- Kai Grossjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> wrote:

> exits funnel <exitsfunnel@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
> > However, according to it's doc string
> move-to-column
> > takes, in addition to the first argument, a second
> > optional one.  How can I pass this second argument
> if
> > I'm issuing the function interactively?
> 
> I think there is no obvious way.  Of course, you can
> cheat by doing
> 
>     M-: (move-to-column 42 t) RET
> 
> But that's, well, cheating.  Please note that M-:
> and M-x are not the
> same.  I really meant M-:.
> 
> Kai

Well, cheating or not, it works and I'm happy. 
Thanks.

-exits


		
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Re: Passing Multiplie Arguments in the mini buffer

[Kevin Rodgers]

Kai Grossjohann wrote:
 > exits funnel <exitsfunnel@yahoo.com> writes:
 >>However, according to it's doc string move-to-column takes, in
 >>addition to the first argument, a second optional one.  How can I
 >>pass this second argument if I'm issuing the function interactively?
 >
 > I think there is no obvious way.  Of course, you can cheat by doing
 >
 >     M-: (move-to-column 42 t) RET
 >
 > But that's, well, cheating.  Please note that M-: and M-x are not the
 > same.  I really meant M-:.

You could cheat even more by specifying a different interactive
interface, via defadvice.  :-) I gave it a try, but haven't quite got
it working:

(defadvice move-to-column (before interactive activate)
   "When called interactivly, prompt for COLUMN and interpret a prefix arg
to mean FORCE."
   (interactive "nColumn: \nP")

The first part does what I'd hoped: I'm prompted for the column, and
that's where Emacs moves point to.  But the "P" interactive spec
doesn't seem to have any effect, and neither did setting force
explicitly: (ad-set-arg 1 current-prefix-arg)

-- 
Kevin Rodgers