Sorry, I'm trying out yasnippet, and it expanded something in the code
accidentally.  Here is the right bits:

(defun my-visit-file (arg)
 "Visit a file using completion. If there is only one window with
nothing in it, then do not split the current window. "
 (interactive "P")
 (let ((insert-default-directory t)
       my-file)
   (when (equal arg '(4))
     (setq insert-default-directory nil))
   (setq my-file (read-file-name "my-visit-file: "))
   (if (and (one-window-p) (zerop (buffer-size)))
       (find-file my-file)
     (find-file-ther-window my-file))))

(define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table
  '(("spec" "/path/to/special/dir" nil 0)))



On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Le Wang <l26wang@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 2:55 AM, Steven W. Orr <steveo@syslang.net> wrote:
>
>> So, if you made it this far, here's the recap:
>>
>> 1. Does anything already exist that smells like what I want?
>>
>
> Yes, abbrev (see below).  I don't use them heavily myself, but here is a
> tutorial: http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_abbrev_mode.html
>
>
>> 2. Can I fix my-visit-file so that a C-u will prevent the default prompt
>> from
>> being the current directory of the file I'm starting from? (But I do still
>> want filename completion.)
>>
>
> Read the filename yourself, so you can have control:
>
> (defun my-visit-file (arg)
>  "Visit a file using completion. If there is only one window with
> nothing in it, then do not split the current window. "
>  (interactive "P")
>  (let ((insert-default-directory t)
>        my-file)
>    (when (equal arg '(4))
>      (setq insert-default-directory nil))
>    (setq my-file (read-file-name "my-visit-file: "))
>    (if (and (one-window-p) (zerop (buffer-size)))
>        (find-file my-file)
>      (find-file-(or  )ther-window my-file))))
>
> (define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table
>   '(("spec" "/path/to/special/dir" nil 0)))
>
>
> You can read the doc on `read-file-name' and `insert-default-directory' for
> yourself.  I've also added an abbrev table entry for "spec".  So, if you
> <C-u>my-find-file, "spec", <C-x>ae, it should expand do what you want.
>
> You can bind expansion to a shorter chord if you like.
>
> --
> Le
>



-- 
Le