Re: cannot call-last-kbd-macro on named macro

[Kevin Rodgers]

james.kingston@gmail.com wrote:
> GNU Emacs 21.4.1....
>
> I have saved some keyboard macros using insert-kbd-macro into my
> .emacs, like the following:
>
> (fset 'toggle-next-perlsub
>    [?\C-\M-s ?\\ ?b ?s ?u ?b ?\\ ?b ?\C-m ?\C-\M-s ?{ ?\C-m ?\M-x ?f ?o
> ?l ?d ?- ?d ?w ?i ?m ?- ?t ?o ?g ?g ?l ?e return])
>
> I can M-x fold-next-perlsub if I want to run the macro, but I cannot
> then run call-last-kbd-macro (which I have bound to an F-key)... it's
> as if the macro is loaded as a function rather than a kbd macro.

No, a keyboard macro is also an interactive function (i.e. a command).
But `M-x call-last-kbd-macro' (which is already bound to `C-x e', not
any harder to type than <Fn>) calls the last keyboard macro that you
defined interactively with `C-x (', not the last macro you defined
programatically with `fset'.

If you want to run the last keyboard macro that you called via `M-x'
again, try `M-x M-p'.

> As a workaround I could change the binding of the F-key to call my
> named macro, but then I wouldn't be able to use the macros with
> apply-macro-to-region-lines... So is there some way to push a named
> macro onto some sort of macro stack so I can use the macro commands
> with my macro?

First, note that `M-x apply-macro-to-region-lines' is available as
`C-x C-k r' in Emacs 22.  But in previous versions I used `C-x E':

(global-set-key "\C-xE" 'apply-macro-to-region-lines) ; uppercase `E'

To call named macros via apply-macro-to-region-lines, I use `C-u ...':

(defadvice apply-macro-to-region-lines (before read-named-macro activate)
  "With a prefix arg, read a named macro to apply (instead of the last 
macro)."
  (interactive
   (list (region-beginning)
         (region-end)
         (if current-prefix-arg
             (read-command "Name of keyboard macro to apply: ")))))

--
Kevin