How to pass in a function for define-key's DEF

Question

I'm using spacemacs and setting a binding with spacemacs/set-leader-keys. The documentation for this states that it uses define-key:

spacemacs/set-leader-keys is a Lisp function in ‘core-keybindings.el’.

(spacemacs/set-leader-keys KEY DEF &rest BINDINGS)

Add KEY and DEF as key bindings under ‘dotspacemacs-leader-key’ and ‘dotspacemacs-emacs-leader-key’. KEY should be a string suitable for passing to ‘kbd’, and it should not include the leaders. DEF is most likely a quoted command. See ‘define-key’ for more information about the possible choices for DEF. This function simply uses ‘define-key’ to add the bindings.

For convenience, this function will accept additional KEY DEF pairs. For example,

(spacemacs/set-leader-keys "a" ’command1 "C-c" ’command2 "bb" ’command3)

spacemacs/set-leader-keys sets the name of the binding in the minibuffer to whatever function it's bound to. Right now I have:

(spacemacs/set-leader-keys "ic" (kbd "o { RET } <escape> O"))

so the binding name is the literal keystrokes. I'd like to be able to put the kbd statement in a function so the function name can be used:

(defun insert-code-block ()
  (kbd "o { RET } <escape> O"))
(spacemacs/set-leader-keys "ic" #'insert-code-block)

When doing so I get this error:

command-execute: Wrong type argument: commandp, insert-code-block

How do I make this work?

---

If you need to know the point of this binding, the binding adds a "code block". So if I type:

void this()

and issue the mnemonic SPC i c, I get a code block with the cursor (|) properly positioned:

void this()
{
    |
}

Answer 1

Try this instead:

(spacemacs/set-leader-keys "ic" (insert-code-block))

It apparently expects, as argument, the result of invoking your function, not your function itself.