Re: a function to enter string

[Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com>]

Gary Wessle <phddas@yahoo.com> writes:

> Hi
>
> I have this key macro in my emacs which puts "#include <string>" in
> the first blank line in the buffer, also another key macro which puts
> the string "std::string" at the point.
>
> (fset 'str
>    [?\M-<?\M-} ?# ?i ?n ?c ?l ?u ?d ?e ?  ?< ?s ?t ?r ?i ?n ?g ?>
>    return])
>
> (fset ':s
>    "std::string")
>
> I want when I type M-x :s  which is the second key macro above, it
> puts the string "std::string" at point as well as checks to see if
> "#include <string>" is at the top of the buffer, if not it inserts
> it so that I don't have to do it.
>
> how can this be done?


I would write a command, like:

(defun std-string ()
  (interactive)
  (insert "std::string")
  (save-excursion
      (beginning-of-buffer)
      (unless (re-search-forward "#include <string>" nil t)
         ;; it is silly to search the first white line to insert
         ;; the #include, but that's what you asked...
         ;; It would be better to just skip over then title comment,
         ;; and to _insert_ a new line for the #include.
         ;;
         (if (re-search-forward "^[ \t]*$" nil t)
             (progn
                (beginning-of-line)
                (insert "#include <string>"))
             (progn 
                ;; See how it's ludicruous? What should we do
                ;; when there's no empty line???
                (end-of-buffer)
                (insert "\n#include <string>"))))))

The symbols whose name starts with a colon are special.  They get
automatically bound to themselves.  So we can evaluate :xyz instead of
':xyz when we want :xyz.  We call them keywords, since they're often
used as "syntax" keywords.   While it's possible to use them to name
functions (given that emacs lisp is a "lisp-2", meaning that a symbol
can be bound to a value and to a function at the same time), I
wouldn't advise to bind functions (or even key macro) to keywords.


You can invoke such a command with M-x stdstr RET and if it's too much
to type, you can bind the command to some key sequence.  For example,
to bind it to the sequence F8 s you can put the following in your
~/.emacs :


(defun c++-meat ()
  (local-set-key (kbd "<f8> s")  'std-string)
  ;; ...
  )

(add-hook 'c++-mode-hook 'c++-meat)

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

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