Re: paren-close-dwim: elisp function of a newbie; feedback welcome

[Harry Putnam]

Davis Herring <address@hidden> writes:

> (defun paren-close-dwim ()
>   "Insert closing parenthesis from syntax table.
> Use a normal parenthesis if not inside any."
>   (interactive "*")
>   (insert (or (ignore-errors
>                 (save-excursion (backward-up-list)
>                                 (cdr (syntax-after (point)))))
>               ?\))))

I'm a total illiterate in elisp but the narrative so far sounds like a
this code might do something really useful.

Can someone describe briefly how this would work, maybe with a small
example, when repairing my own perl code?