Re: Emacs manual desribes keyboard macros in the wrong section.

[Robert J. Chassell]

   >     I'm currently working on documenting the enhanced kmacro commands
   >     (ready in 1-2 weeks), ...

On a related issue:

A decade or more ago, Emacs possessed a command that would convert a
keyboard macro to an Emacs Lisp program starting with `defun'.  Does
this program still exist?  If so what is it called?  I cannot find it.

Here is what I mean.  As the manual says,

       C-x ( C-a C-<SPC> C-n M-w C-x b f o o <RET> C-y C-x b <RET> C-x )

    defines a macro that copies the current line into the buffer
    `foo', then returns to the original buffer.

The old function, which may have been part of an early version of
Emacs Calc, would have produced a `defun' like this
(the optional doc string was in the wrong place):

    (defun sample-kmacro () ""
      (interactive)
      (beginning-of-line)
      (set-mark-command)
      (next-line)
      (kill-ring-save)
      (switch-to-buffer "foo")
      (yank)
      (switch-to-buffer (other-buffer)))
                                        
Does the old function still exist?  I would like to see it.

I cannot find the old function, and have always thought it interesting
as well as useful both in practice and as a teaching tool.

Currently, `insert-kbd-macro' produces this:

  (fset 'sample-kmacro
     [?\C-a ?\C-  ?\C-n ?\M-w ?\C-x ?b ?f ?o ?o return ?\C-y ?\C-x ?b return])

Also, the `Keyboard Macro Editor' in the current distribution, in
`....emacs/lisp/edmacro.el', produces this when you type `C-x C-k RET'
(kmacro-edit-macro):

    ;; Keyboard Macro Editor.  Press C-c C-c to finish;
    ;; Press C-x k RET to cancel.
    ;; Original keys: C-a C-SPC C-n M-w C-x b foo RET C-y C-x b RET

    Command: last-kbd-macro
    Key: none

    Macro:

    C-a                 ;; beginning-of-line
    C-SPC               ;; set-mark-command
    C-n                 ;; next-line
    M-w                 ;; kill-ring-save
    C-x b               ;; switch-to-buffer
    foo                 ;; self-insert-command * 3
    RET                 ;; newline
    C-y                 ;; yank
    C-x b               ;; switch-to-buffer
    RET                 ;; newline

As is, the current `insert-kbd-macro' and `kmacro-edit-macro' are
fine; but they are not as helpful as a program that converts
keystrokes to a `defun'.

--
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                             address@hidden