21.2.4 Select among Command Alternatives

The macro define-alternatives can be used to define generic commands. These are interactive functions whose implementation can be selected from several alternatives, as a matter of user preference.

Macro: define-alternatives command &rest customizations

Define the new command command, a symbol.

When a user runs M-x command RET for the first time, Emacs prompts for which real form of the command to use, and records the selection by way of a custom variable. Using a prefix argument repeats this process of choosing an alternative.

The variable command-alternatives should contain an alist with alternative implementations of command. Until this variable is set, define-alternatives has no effect.

If customizations is non-nil, it should consist of alternating defcustom keywords (typically :group and :version) and values to add to the declaration of command-alternatives.