autotype: Using Skeletons
1 Using Skeletons
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When you want Emacs to insert a form letter or a typical construct of
the programming language you are using, skeletons are a means of
accomplishing this. Normally skeletons each have a command of their
own, that, when called, will insert the skeleton. These commands can be
issued in the usual ways (
(emacs)Commands). Modes that offer
various skeletons will often bind these to key-sequences on the ‘C-c’
prefix, as well as having an ‘Insert’ menu and maybe even predefined
abbrevs for them (Skeletons as Abbrevs).
The simplest kind of skeleton will simply insert some text indented
according to the major mode and leave the cursor at a likely place in
the middle. Interactive skeletons may prompt you for a string that will
be part of the inserted text.
Skeletons may ask for input several times. They even have a looping
mechanism in which you will be asked for input as long as you are
willing to furnish it. An example would be multiple “else if”
conditions. You can recognize this situation by a prompt ending in
<RET>, ‘C-g’ or ‘C-h’. This means that entering an empty string will
simply assume that you are finished. Typing quit on the other hand
terminates the loop but also the rest of the skeleton, e.g., an “else”
clause is skipped. Only a syntactically necessary termination still
gets inserted.
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