[OS X Emacs] Abbrevs with '\' character don't work in Aquamacs 1.5

[Jochen Küpper]

On 10.10.2008, at 23:55, Ian Eure wrote:

> On Oct 8, 2008, at 2:29 PM, Adrian wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to define some abbrevs for LaTeX commands.  However, if  
>> I try to define any abbrevs beginning with a '\' character, the  
>> abbrev is not completed when I type a space after the word.  I have  
>> included several examples from my abbrevs file below:
>>
>> (define-abbrev-table 'text-mode-abbrev-table '(
>>    ("teh"  "the "  nil 0)
>>    ("\\c" "\\chapter{}" backward-char 0)
>>    ("\\i" "\\item" nil 0)
>>    ; abbreviations calling functions (which are defined in my- 
>> latex.el)
>>    ("\\ce" "" my-latex-center 0)
>>  ))
>>
>> Of these examples, the first works fine in LaTeX mode.  However,  
>> none of the others produce any results when I type a space after  
>> the desired abbrev.  For example, "\c " will remain as "\c" and not  
>> expand to "\chapter{}" as desired.  I have tried altering the  
>> syntax of the abbrevs a bit.  If I remove one of the preceding  
>> slash characters, so the abbrev definition looks like "\c" "\ 
>> \chapter{}" etc., the abbrev is inserted when I type "c " with no  
>> preceding slash.  Also, if I try to define an abbrev using the  
>> command line key sequence C-x a g, the resulting abbrev is still  
>> not functional.  For example, typing C-x a g after "\ref{}" and  
>> assigning the abbrev "\foo", I see a new line in my list of abbrevs  
>> that looks just like the ones above: ("\\foo" "\\ref{}" nil 0).   
>> However, this abbrev, like the ones I have defined for myself, also  
>> fails.  It seems that Emacs doesn't know how to read its own  
>> syntax...?
>>

>> I hope what I am trying to do is possible in Emacs, as it seems  
>> like fairly basic functionality.  If not, is there a better way to  
>> handle LaTeX completions in Emacs?
>>
> Define abbrevs which are sequences of word-syntax characters. e.g.  
> `chap', `itm', `cen', etc.



Of course for the general LaTeX command the idea is simply to use  
auctex bindings, i.e., C-c C-s toi insert chapter/section/... or C-c C- 
e for environemnts and M-TAB to get a new item... That's faster than  
any abbrevs, and you are free to use the abbrevs for actual writing;-)

Greetings,
Jochen
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