This section describes higher-level commands for inserting text, commands intended primarily for the user but useful also in Lisp programs.
This command inserts the entire accessible contents of
from-buffer-or-name (which must exist) into the current buffer
after point. It leaves the mark after the inserted text. The value
is nil
.
This command inserts the character char (the last character typed);
it does so count times, before point, and returns nil
.
Most printing characters are bound to this command. In routine use,
self-insert-command
is the most frequently called function in Emacs,
but programs rarely use it except to install it on a keymap.
In an interactive call, count is the numeric prefix argument.
Self-insertion translates the input character through
translation-table-for-input
. See Translation of Characters.
This command calls auto-fill-function
whenever that is
non-nil
and the character inserted is in the table
auto-fill-chars
(see Auto Filling).
This command performs abbrev expansion if Abbrev mode is enabled and
the inserted character does not have word-constituent
syntax. (See Abbrevs, and Syntax Class Table.) It is also
responsible for calling blink-paren-function
when the inserted
character has close parenthesis syntax (see Blinking).
The final thing this command does is to run the hook
post-self-insert-hook
. You could use this to automatically
reindent text as it is typed, for example. If any function on this
hook needs to act on the region (see The Region), it should make
sure Delete Selection mode (see Delete Selection in The GNU Emacs Manual) doesn’t delete the region before
post-self-insert-hook
functions are invoked. The way to do so
is to add a function that returns nil
to
self-insert-uses-region-functions
, a special hook that tells
Delete Selection mode it should not delete the region.
Do not try substituting your own definition of
self-insert-command
for the standard one. The editor command
loop handles this function specially.
This command inserts newlines into the current buffer before point. If number-of-newlines is supplied, that many newline characters are inserted. In an interactive call, number-of-newlines is the numeric prefix argument.
This command calls self-insert-command
to insert newlines,
which may subsequently break the preceding line by calling
auto-fill-function
(see Auto Filling). Typically what
auto-fill-function
does is insert a newline; thus, the overall
result in this case is to insert two newlines at different places: one
at point, and another earlier in the line. newline
does not
auto-fill if number-of-newlines is non-nil
.
This command does not run the hook post-self-insert-hook
unless
called interactively or interactive is non-nil
.
This command indents to the left margin if that is not zero. See Margins.
The value returned is nil
.
This variable controls whether overwrite mode is in effect. The value
should be overwrite-mode-textual
, overwrite-mode-binary
,
or nil
. overwrite-mode-textual
specifies textual
overwrite mode (treats newlines and tabs specially), and
overwrite-mode-binary
specifies binary overwrite mode (treats
newlines and tabs like any other characters).