Re: Getting functions into define-key...

[Kevin Rodgers]

Norman Walsh wrote:

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> I'm guessing there must be some way to do this other than brute force.
>
> I have an alist:
>
> (defvar my-alist
>   '(("choice1" . "opt1")
>     ("choice2" . 35)
>     ("choice3" . "opt3")))
>
> I want to make a menu-bar menu that contains choice1, choice2, choice3.
> If choice1 is selected, I want to evaluate (my-function "opt1"),
> If choice2 is selected, I want to evaluate (my-function 35), etc.
>
> I can see a brute-force solution:
>
> (defun my-function-opt1 ()
>   (interactive)
>   (my-function "opt1"))
>
> (define-key menu-bar-my-menu [my-choice1]
>   '("choice1" . my-function-opt1))
>
> But it seems to me that it should be possible to build the menu bar
> from the alist. Alas, it's just beyond my elisp skills.

Here's how to handle ("choice1" . "opt1"):

(define-key menu-bar-my-menu [my-choice1]
  '("choice1" . (lambda () (interactive) (my-function "opt1"))))

So given my-alist:

(let ((alist my-alist)
      choice
      option)
  (while alist
    (setq choice (car (car alist))      ; string
          option (cadr (car alist)))    ; constant (self-evaluating)
    (define-key menu-bar-my-menu (vector (intern choice))
      `(,choice . (lambda () (interactive) (my-function ,option))))
    (setq alist (cdr alist))))

--
Kevin Rodgers