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elisp: Abbrevs

 
 35 Abbrevs and Abbrev Expansion
 *******************************
 
 An abbreviation or “abbrev” is a string of characters that may be
 expanded to a longer string.  The user can insert the abbrev string and
 find it replaced automatically with the expansion of the abbrev.  This
 saves typing.
 
    The set of abbrevs currently in effect is recorded in an “abbrev
 table”.  Each buffer has a local abbrev table, but normally all buffers
 in the same major mode share one abbrev table.  There is also a global
 abbrev table.  Normally both are used.
 
    An abbrev table is represented as an obarray.  Creating
 Symbols, for information about obarrays.  Each abbreviation is
 represented by a symbol in the obarray.  The symbol’s name is the
 abbreviation; its value is the expansion; its function definition is the
 hook function for performing the expansion (Defining Abbrevs);
 and its property list cell contains various additional properties,
 including the use count and the number of times the abbreviation has
 been expanded (Abbrev Properties).
 
    Certain abbrevs, called “system abbrevs”, are defined by a major mode
 instead of the user.  A system abbrev is identified by its non-‘nil’
 ‘:system’ property (Abbrev Properties).  When abbrevs are saved
 to an abbrev file, system abbrevs are omitted.  Abbrev Files.
 
    Because the symbols used for abbrevs are not interned in the usual
 obarray, they will never appear as the result of reading a Lisp
 expression; in fact, normally they are never used except by the code
 that handles abbrevs.  Therefore, it is safe to use them in a
 nonstandard way.
 
    If the minor mode Abbrev mode is enabled, the buffer-local variable
 ‘abbrev-mode’ is non-‘nil’, and abbrevs are automatically expanded in
 the buffer.  For the user-level commands for abbrevs, see Abbrev
 Mode (emacs)Abbrevs.
 

Menu

 
· Tables Abbrev Tables.        Creating and working with abbrev tables.
· Defining Abbrevs            Specifying abbreviations and their expansions.
· Files Abbrev Files.          Saving abbrevs in files.
· Expansion Abbrev Expansion.  Controlling expansion; expansion subroutines.
· Standard Abbrev Tables      Abbrev tables used by various major modes.
· Abbrev Properties           How to read and set abbrev properties.
                                 Which properties have which effect.
· Abbrev Table Properties     How to read and set abbrev table properties.
                                 Which properties have which effect.
 

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