4

Let's say I want to provide partial input to an interactive function such as insert-char. For example, I might want to have a command that automatically starts typing GREEK SMALL LETTER or BOX DRAWINGS.

This does not work, because call-interactively exits before insert is called:

(defun insert-box-drawing-char ()
  (interactive)
  (call-interactively 'insert-char)
  (insert "BOX DRAWING"))

How can I provide partial input to an interactive function?

Improve this question
3
  • Sounds like this might be an X-Y question. Maybe try to explain why you think you want to do this - what you are really trying to do. Just a suggestion.
    – Drew
    Commented Apr 17, 2015 at 5:17
  • In this case, my use case of inserting specific characters is presented purely as example. An interesting X question in this case would be "How do I efficiently work with a subset of characters?". Another one would be "How can I filter the choices to an interactive function?". If those sound interesting, it would be great of you to add them to the community wiki. In this case I am curious about the technique of inserting text into the minibuffer, since I believe it may be a generally useful thing to know.
    – Matthew Piziak
    Commented Apr 17, 2015 at 15:35
  • This will not help for a use case such as this one, where you do not have access to the call that initiates minibuffer reading (what's more, insert-char is coded in C), but it's maybe good to remind readers that both completing-read and read-from-minibuffer let you pass an INITIAL-INPUT argument, and you can position the cursor anywhere within that string, which is inserted in the minibuffer to start with. (Vanilla Emacs considers INITIAL-INPUT to be deprecated for completing-read, but that proscription can be ignored.)
    – Drew
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 15:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

So you want to invoke a command and have a given string automatically inserted at that command's interactive prompt.

You can do this using minibuffer-setup-hook, and there is a handy macro which takes care of adding and removing the desired function to this hook, while ensuring that it only runs when you wanted it to run:

(minibuffer-with-setup-hook
    (lambda () (insert "BOX DRAWING"))
  (call-interactively 'insert-char))
Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.