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Re: Emacs internals + lisp guru question
From: |
D . Goel |
Subject: |
Re: Emacs internals + lisp guru question |
Date: |
29 Sep 2002 02:47:34 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 |
It is pleasing to see someone post under the name gnuist :=) Please do
note, however, that posting to multiple newsgroups is not considered
polite. Also, a more descriptive subject will get more people to
actually open your mail and you will get more reply. (Also, i am
copying you on this one, but read follow-ups in the same newsgroup in
general).
> There are some functions that take a list as argument.
> Text can be read from the buffer as a string.
> There are some functions that take a "symbol" as an argument.
> A string can be converted to a symbol.
> However, when symbol is provided to the function by converting a string
> it is not working.
>
> For example:
>
> (describe-function quoted-SYMBOL) works
> (make-symbol "describe-function") works
Do a C-h f make-symbol, to see that:
make-symbol is a built-in function.
(make-symbol NAME)
Return a newly allocated uninterned symbol whose name is NAME.
Its value and function definition are void, and its property list is nil.
viz. To repeat: Its value and function definitions are void.
Perhaps what you are looking for is "intern".
(describe-function (intern "describe-function")).
Again, see manual. and use C-h f, and use M-x find-function.
>
> How can we get the code of describe-function?
M-x find-function.
>
> What is the meaning of the gibberish from (insert (format "%s"
> (symbol-function 'describe-function) ))
See manual and use C-h f.
>
> What is out there to learn more about emacs/emacs_lisp and become
> more sophisticated?
Emacs, by itself, has the most extensive self-documentation than
probably any other software. Make sure you do have the elisp
manual, intro to emacs-lisp programming, emacs FAQ installed.
(On debian gnulinux, this means:
apt-get install emacs-lisp-intro elisp-manual,
in addition to the regular apt-get install emacs21).
Now, here's one possible order in which to go through all the
documentation. (mix and match as you please :=) -->
C-h t (tutorial)
C-h i and read tutorial on Info.
C-h i and go to the Emacs FAQ node.
C-h i and EMACS FAQ
C-h i and EMACS manual
C-h i and Elisp intro (an awesome tutorial written by Robert Chassell)
C-h i and Emacs lisp manual
browse the english and lisp in source-files.
(use M-x find-function, M-x finder-commentary etc. etc.)
Browse the Emacs's core C files for more internals! :-)
DG http://24.197.159.102/~deego/
--