Defining a Minor Mode
These are the steps involved in defining a minor mode.
Choose a name. The name for our mode is
refill
.Define a variable named name-
mode
. Make it buffer-local. The minor mode is "on" in a buffer if that buffer's value of name-mode
is non-nil
, "off" otherwise.(defvar refill-mode nil "Mode variable for refill minor mode.") (make-variable-buffer-local 'refill-mode)
Define a command called name-
mode
.[28] The command should take one optional argument. With no arguments, it should toggle the mode on or off. With an argument, it should turn the mode on if theprefix-numeric-value
of the argument is greater than zero, off otherwise. Thus, C-u M-x name-mode RET always turns it on, and C-u â M-x name-mode RET always turns it off (refer to the section entitled Addendum: Raw Prefix Argument in Chapter 2). Here's the command for toggling Refill mode:(defun refill-mode (&optional arg) "Refill minor mode." (interactive "P") (setq refill-mode (if (null arg) (not refill-mode) (> (prefix-numeric-value arg) 0))) (if refill-mode code for turning on refill-mode code for turning off refill-mode))
That
setq
is a little hairy, but it's a common idiom in minor mode definitions. Ifarg
isnil
(because no prefix argument was given), it setsrefill-mode
to(not refill-mode)
âi.e., the opposite ofrefill-mode
's previous value,t
ornil
. Otherwise, it setsrefill-mode
to the truth value of(> (prefix-numeric-value arg) 0)
which is
t
ifarg
has a numeric value greater than 0,nil
otherwise. ...
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