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When I need a function to operate on a region I do, for example:

(defun myfunction (B E)
 (interactive "r")
 (let ((b (make-marker))
       (e (make-marker)))
   (set-marker b B)
   (set-marker e E)

   ;; DO SOMETHING THAT CHANGES THE BUFFER, THEN

   (comment-region b e)))

Is there a simpler way to have B and E as markers?

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    I seldom really need markers. If I really need a marker then usually only at one end. When I use markers I often do (let ((m (make-marker))) (unwind-protect (progn (set-marker m pos) ...) (set-marker m nil))) to avoid the dangling marker living on until the next garbage-collect. When you don't care about the dangling marker you can do (let ((m (set-marker (make-marker) pos))) ...). One sees that quite often in libraries. In some cases (save-restriction (narrow-to-region b e) ...) is an alternative to markers. – Tobias Feb 11 '18 at 12:01
  • Not caring about a dangling marker seems like a bad habit. – phils Feb 11 '18 at 14:52
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    I suspect the only way to make this simpler is by making a helper macro (like, with-markers) and reusing it. – wasamasa Feb 11 '18 at 17:59
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    @GabrieleNicolardi, buffer-has-markers-at can be used to confirm that the marker still exists after the let-bound variable goes out of scope. – phils Feb 11 '18 at 20:19
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    @GabrieleNicolardi, you need to use (set-marker MARKER nil) while you still have a handle on it (e.g. before the let-binding goes out of scope). That said, I did just confirm that the markers do get garbage-collected in that let-bound scenario (at some later point after they are out of scope); so although it's still best-practice to explicitly set them to nil when you are finished with them, they don't stick around forever. – phils Feb 11 '18 at 21:30
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In the case given don't see a necessity for a marker:

(defun my-comment-region (start end)
  (interactive "*r")
  (comment-region start end))

A marker is needed, if the start/end positions are going to change during execution and should follow that change:

(defun my-change-of-region (start end)
  (interactive "*r")
  (let ((end (copy-marker end)))
    (delete-region start end)
    ;; start and end should be equal now
    (message "%s" start)
    (message "%s" end)))

As start doesn't change in example above, its marker would be useless. Only the end-marker has effect.

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  • It's exactly what I needed. Indeed start/end positions are both going to change during execution (LaTeX typesetting). I didn't know about the "copy-marker" function. – Gabriele Nicolardi Feb 11 '18 at 16:43

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