Re: Wrap predefined text around region

[Kevin Rodgers]

On 12/2/10 3:05 PM, Harry Putnam wrote:
> Can anyone show an example of how to do something like this:
>
> I want to wrap this:
>
>    # [HP 101202_15:55:07
>    # ]
>
> Around the selected text...
>     <selected text region here>
>     <selected text region here>
>     <selected text region here>
>     <selected text region here>
>
> that is, select some text and press a key
> combo ... voila... its now surrounded by:
>    # [HP 101202_15:55:07
>
>    # ]
>
> Over the yrs I've acquired a fairly lengthy .emacs mostly by theft
> from more skilled people.  Coding something like that is clear out of
> my skill set.
>
> I use lots of `skeleton' things for inserting various predefined texts
> but don't know how to make that happen to selected region.
>
> Usually given an example, I've been able to hack it up to my needs.

`skeleton' sounds like it's the right level of abstraction, but since I'm not
familiar with it here's a hack:

(defun delimit-region (beg end beg-delim end-delim)
  "Delimit region from BEG to END by inserting BEG-DELIM and END-DELIM text."
  (interactive "r\nsBegin: \nsEnd: ")
  (unless (markerp end)
    (setq end (copy-marker end)))
  (unwind-protect
      (progn
        (save-excursion
          (goto-char beg)
          (insert-before-markers beg-delim))
        (save-excursion
          (goto-char end)
          (insert end-delim)))
    (when (markerp end)
      (set-marker end nil))))

Hope that helps,
--
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA