underline with character e.g. '-' or '='

underline with character e.g. '-' or '='

[Brian Adkins]

I often underline text with a hyphen or equal sign manually. I would
appreciate any info regarding how to accomplish this with a small elisp
function. Actually, if I had a function to compute the length of the
line, I think I would be all set.

For example, if I had the following line:

Section One

I would like to position the the cursor on the 'S' and invoke:
M-x underline-line-with-char

Which would prompte for a character in the minibuffer. If = was
supplied, the result would be:

Section One
===========

It seems like a simple task:
1) Prompt for a character
2) Compute the length of the line
3) Insert a line below the current line
4) Insert <length> number of characters

Thanks,
Brian Adkins

Re: underline with character e.g. '-' or '='

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 13 May 2008 16:03:34 -0400 Brian Adkins wrote:

> I often underline text with a hyphen or equal sign manually. I would
> appreciate any info regarding how to accomplish this with a small elisp
> function. Actually, if I had a function to compute the length of the
> line, I think I would be all set.
>
> For example, if I had the following line:
>
> Section One
>
> I would like to position the the cursor on the 'S' and invoke:
> M-x underline-line-with-char
>
> Which would prompte for a character in the minibuffer. If = was
> supplied, the result would be:
>
> Section One
> ===========

(defun underline-with-char (char)
  (interactive (list (read-from-minibuffer "Char: ")))
  (when (= 0 (length char))
    (error "Need a character"))
  (setq char (aref char 0))             ; Ignore everything but the first char.
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char (point-at-eol))
    (insert "\n"
            (make-string (- (point-at-eol)
                            (point-at-bol))
                         char))))

If it's only about visual feedback in emacs: tried outline-mode?

David

Re: underline with character e.g. '-' or '='

[Brian Adkins]

David Hansen <david.hansen@gmx.net> writes:

> On Tue, 13 May 2008 16:03:34 -0400 Brian Adkins wrote:
>
>> I often underline text with a hyphen or equal sign manually. I would
>> appreciate any info regarding how to accomplish this with a small elisp
>> function. Actually, if I had a function to compute the length of the
>> line, I think I would be all set.
>>
>> For example, if I had the following line:
>>
>> Section One
>>
>> I would like to position the the cursor on the 'S' and invoke:
>> M-x underline-line-with-char
>>
>> Which would prompte for a character in the minibuffer. If = was
>> supplied, the result would be:
>>
>> Section One
>> ===========
>
> (defun underline-with-char (char)
>   (interactive (list (read-from-minibuffer "Char: ")))
>   (when (= 0 (length char))
>     (error "Need a character"))
>   (setq char (aref char 0))             ; Ignore everything but the first char.
>   (save-excursion
>     (goto-char (point-at-eol))
>     (insert "\n"
>             (make-string (- (point-at-eol)
>                             (point-at-bol))
>                          char))))

Perfect - thanks! I love how extensible Emacs is. I just need to find
some time to research elisp programming. I've added a few things to my
tool belt from your code above.

> If it's only about visual feedback in emacs: tried outline-mode?

I have tried outline-mode briefly, but the function above is precisely
what I want.

>
> David