How to make $ as an alias for a specific keyboard macro in emacs

Question

Suppose that I have defined a macro in emacs (24.2), say xyz.

I would like to associate the shortcut $ to this macro, i.e. to run the macro xyz whenever I type $. How I can do it?

I tried all of the following without success:

(global-set-key [$] 'xyz) 
(global-set-key ["$"] 'xyz) 
(global-set-key [?$] 'xyz) 
(global-set-key [s-4] 'xyz)
(global-set-key "$" 'xyz) 
(global-set-key (kbd "$") 'xyz)

(The last three ones were suggested by bleeding-fingers, abo-abo and Chris).

`(global-set-key (kbd "$") 'xyz)` works for me, again on 24.3, but I believe this reduces to @abo-abo's solution. — ChrisGPT was on strike, Jan 07 '14 at 19:44
@Chris I tried your solution, as you mentioned, like that of abo-abo, I get the following error: "After 0 kbd macro iterations: font-lock-default-function: Variable binding depth exceeds max-specpdl-size" — Name, Jan 07 '14 at 19:48
@Name, that's not a problem of binding a key to an existing macro. It's a problem with the definition of the macro. What if you do `M-x xyz`? Does it work, or do you get an error? — ChrisGPT was on strike, Jan 07 '14 at 19:51
@Chris M-x xyz works without problem. Also I can associate other shortcuts to xyz without problem, for example I can assign the shortcut Meta-m without problem. — Name, Jan 07 '14 at 19:59
What are you doing with the macro? Can you post the output of insert-kbd-macro? — Tyler, Jan 07 '14 at 20:03
@Name Alright, then. I just tested `(global-set-key (kbd "$") 'xyz)` on a brand new install of 24.2.1 and it worked just fine. Have you tested with `emacs -Q`? — ChrisGPT was on strike, Jan 07 '14 at 20:04
@Tyler my macro is (fset 'xyz " $") i.e., I want to make an space together with a $ whenever I type a $. — Name, Jan 07 '14 at 20:24
Then I want to associate the shortcut (global-set-key (kbd "$") 'xyz) as suggested by @Chris, but as I used $ in the definition of the macro, emacs gets confused. — Name, Jan 07 '14 at 20:26

Tyler · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-07T20:31:16.770

From your comments, it is now clear that you've defined a macro that includes using the key $. If you do this, you can't then bind the macro to the $, because that makes it recursive - every time you get to the $ in your macro, you are in effect calling the macro again.

You could, however, define the actions you want performed as an elisp function, which you could then bind to $. If we knew what you were actually doing with your macro we might be able to show you how.

EDIT: how about this:

(global-set-key (kbd "$") #'(lambda () (interactive) (insert " $")))

That should work, but lambdas can be a bit confusing. A little clearer for elisp beginners might be:

(defun my-dollars ()
  "Insert a dollar sign with a space in front."
  (interactive)
  (insert " $"))

(global-set-key (kbd "$") 'my-dollars)

How to make $ as an alias for a specific keyboard macro in emacs

1 Answers1