Re: Emacs initialisation query

["Richard C. Cobbe" <cobbe@directlink.net>]

Lo, on Thursday, March 22, Oliver Elphick did write:

> "Richard C. Cobbe" wrote:
>   >Lo, on Thursday, March 22, Oliver Elphick did write:
>   >
>   >> (If it matters, I'm using xemacs 21).
>   >> 
>   >> I want to define a function key to run a macro. 
>   >> 
>   >> I can do it within a session:
>   >> 
>   >>   ESC x global-set-key RET <f9> eif-indent-buffer RET
>   >> 
>   >> but I can't get it to work in the initialisation file ~/.emacs:
>   >> 
>   >> (defalias 'eif-indent-buffer (read-kbd-macro
>   >> "ESC x mark- whole- buffer RET ESC x eif- indent- region RET"))
>   >> (global-set-key <f9> 'eif-indent-buffer)
>   >> 
>   >> 
>   >> What should I put for <f9>?  I've tried "f9", <f9>, "<f9>", (<f9>)
>   >> and it doesn't like any of them.  I can't see anything about it in
>   >> the docs either.
>   >
>   >(global-set-key [f9] 'eif-indent-buffer)
>   >
>   >See the xemacs info page, `Key Sequences' node.
>  
> In fact, that caused xemacs to hang for a long while, but your pointer to
> documentation led me to the correct answer, in the node "Programmatic
> Rebinding":
> 
>   (global-set-key 'f9 'eif-indent-buffer)

That's surprising.  According to that node, 'f9 is an abbreviation for
'(f9), which is in turn an abbreviation for [(f9)].  My solution, [f9], is
also an abbreviation for [(f9)].

This is all the stranger because I have the following in my .emacs, and
they work just fine:

(global-set-key [delete] 'delete-char)
(global-set-key [kp-delete] 'delete-char)
(global-set-key [(control m)] 'newline-and-indent)
(global-set-key [(control x) (control g)] 'goto-line)
(global-set-key [(control x) (control k)] 'rcc-save-and-kill-current-buffer)
(global-set-key [f5] 'call-last-kbd-macro)
(global-set-key [f9] 'compile)
(global-set-key [f12] 'repeat-complex-command)
(global-set-key [home] 'beginning-of-buffer)
(global-set-key [end] 'end-of-buffer)
(global-set-key [kp-home] 'rcc-beginning-of-buffer-no-mark)
(global-set-key [kp-end] 'rcc-end-of-buffer-no-mark)

My only guess is that the behavior you noticed has something to do with the
fact that you're binding a key to a macro, whereas I'm binding all of my
keys to functions.  I'd probably have written your particular situation
like this:

(defun rcc-eif-indent-buffer ()
"Indents the entire buffer according to Eiffel mode's indentation rules."
  (interactive nil)
  (eif-indent-region (point-min) (point-max)))
(global-set-key [f9] 'rcc-eif-indent-buffer)

This is a mite cleaner, and it has the advantage that it doesn't change
mark's location as it runs.  Still, your solution is perfectly valid.

Glad you got it working,

Richard