I generated a macro as a help for generating indices for words I have marked before. Now this macro looks as follows
(fset 'index
"\367\\index{\C-y")
What does \367stand for and where can I look it up?
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How did you get this representation for the macro? Did you type a M-w in your macro? I suspect my answer misses something, after reading section 2.3.3.4 of the elisp manual.– JeanPierreAug 22, 2019 at 19:48
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@JeanPierre : I used M-x insert-kbd-macro– pawel_winzigAug 22, 2019 at 20:14
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1 Answer
This is a representation of the character whose code is 367 in octal. This "general escape representation" is described in the elisp manual.
You can use the function text-char-description as:
M-: (text-char-description ?\367)
or M-x describe-char with point on the char
to see this is the character DIVISION SIGN.
Now the question is what does it stand for?
The short answer is that this character is the representation of the keyboard event M-w in a string. For the details I recommend reading section Putting Keyboard Events in Strings of the elisp manual.
Also note that the manual discourages storing keyboard events in strings and recommends using vectors instead.
answered Aug 22, 2019 at 17:18
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Do you maybe know why the division sign appears there at all? Which function does it have? I tried to look it up but didn't find a useful source. Aug 23, 2019 at 8:39
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I suspect this is in fact a representation of M-w, that's why I asked you about this. Unfortunately,
insert-kbd-macrodoes not bring up a string for me. I'm currently investigating. Aug 23, 2019 at 9:34 -
Oh yes, now I understand. I indeed typed M-w to have the marked word saved before I paste it. Now it's clear, thank you very much! Aug 23, 2019 at 10:21
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1"
insert-kbd-macrodoes not bring up a string for me" - it depends which keys you have in the macro: if all of them are plain characters that fit in range 0-255, then Emacs will use a string, otherwise a vector.– npostavsAug 23, 2019 at 12:22 -