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4.5 Review

Here is a brief summary of the various functions discussed in this chapter.

describe-function

describe-variable

Print the documentation for a function or variable. Conventionally bound to C-h f and C-h v.

xref-find-definitions

Find the file containing the source for a function or variable and switch buffers to it, positioning point at the beginning of the item. Conventionally bound to M-. (that’s a period following the META key).

save-excursion

Save the location of point and restore its value after the arguments to save-excursion have been evaluated. Also, remember the current buffer and return to it.

push-mark

Set mark at a location and record the value of the previous mark on the mark ring. The mark is a location in the buffer that will keep its relative position even if text is added to or removed from the buffer.

goto-char

Set point to the location specified by the value of the argument, which can be a number, a marker, or an expression that returns the number of a position, such as (point-min).

insert-buffer-substring

Copy a region of text from a buffer that is passed to the function as an argument and insert the region into the current buffer.

mark-whole-buffer

Mark the whole buffer as a region. Normally bound to C-x h.

let*

Declare a list of variables and give them an initial value; then evaluate the rest of the expressions in the body of let*. The values of the variables can be used to bind ensuing variables in the list.

set-buffer

Switch the attention of Emacs to another buffer, but do not change the window being displayed. Used when the program rather than a human is to work on a different buffer.

get-buffer-create

get-buffer

Find a named buffer or create one if a buffer of that name does not exist. The get-buffer function returns nil if the named buffer does not exist.