Question: How could I find out the M-x equivalent commands for doing GUI-based operations in Emacs, in those cases where my Emacs-variant uses OS-specific desktop functionality?
Background: Conventional understanding states that everything in Emacs is a command, and that commands can be invoked via M-x, as long as you know the name of the command. Assuming this statement is correct, what is the way to find the name of the commands used to trigger the "GUI-style" menus in a "desktop" based Emacs variant?
For example, if I were to mouse-select the File menu to open a file, the OS-specific "GUI" style file-open dialog pops up, waiting for my input.
How could I find out the M-x equivalent command for doing the exact same thing?
I thought that describe-key would tell me what I needed to know, but it's indication to use:
M-x menu-find-file-existing
doesn't invoke the "GUI" style file-open dialog. Instead, it uses the Emacs internal non-GUI-OS-neutral variant.
You need to trick Emacs into thinking that the keyboard was not being used, which is not as intuitive as tricking it into thinking that the mouse was used. :)
(defadvice find-file-read-args (around find-file-read-args-always-use-dialog-box act)
"Simulate invoking menu item as if by the mouse; see `use-dialog-box'."
(let ((last-nonmenu-event nil))
ad-do-it))
Tested on Emacs 22.2.1 on WinXP. I believe the paradigm has been around for a while, though, so it should work on older Emacs. No clue if XEmacs works similarly or not.
Wow, I'm glad you asked that. I've been meaning for a while to look it up myself.
C-h k followed by the menu choice will tell you this. Here, for example, is what you get from choosing menu/edit/paste:
<menu-bar> <edit> <paste> runs the command clipboard-yank
which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `menu-bar.el'.
It is bound to <paste>, <f18>, <menu-bar> <edit> <paste>.
(clipboard-yank)
Insert the clipboard contents, or the last stretch of killed text.
If you want the details, follow the link for menu-bar-el to the LISP source:
(defun menu-find-file-existing ()
"Edit the existing file FILENAME."
(interactive)
(let* ((mustmatch (not (and (fboundp 'x-uses-old-gtk-dialog)
(x-uses-old-gtk-dialog))))
(filename (car (find-file-read-args "Find file: " mustmatch))))
(if mustmatch
(find-file-existing filename)
(find-file filename))))
