Re: Execute a string as a command

[Tim Johnson]

* Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> [151107 09:44]:
> In article <mailman.1860.1446859974.7904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
>  Tim Johnson <tim@akwebsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> > * Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> [151106 12:47]:
> > > Tim Johnson <tim@akwebsoft.com> writes:
> > > 
> > > > I can't get to that phase for another day or two..
> > > > thanks, Emanuel.
> > > 
> > > No, there are much better things for you to do than to
> > > digest that code. For example, ask yourself why you
> > > want to execute strings as commands, and if there is
> > > a better way still.
> > > 
> > > That code of mine is more like a demo to show of
> > > skills and attract ohs and ahs. It is not really
> > > helpful (tho sometimes I use it so it *does* work).
> > 
> >   By this time, you've probably read from the continuation of this
> >   thread that I had problems with setting up the menu structure so
> >   that command objects could be read from it. Thus I used a string
> >   representation to see if that could be evaluated. 
> 
> The usual way to implement things like this is with an association list.
> The key is the string that's displayed in the menu, and the value is a 
> symbol that names a function or a lambda expression.

  Absolutely. This is what I was finally able to make work:
  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
  (defun tj-toggle-funcs ()
  "Toggle functions"
  (interactive)
  (let ((menu
         '("" ("" ("1)Transient Mark Mode" . (transient-mark-mode))
               ("2)Truncate Lines" . (toggle-truncate-lines))
               ("3)Show Tabs" .  (toggle-show-tabs-show-ws)))
        (choice))
    (setq choice (tmm-prompt menu))
    (if choice
          (eval choice))))
  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Any creative or instructive comments are more than welcome.

-- 
Tim 
http://www.akwebsoft.com, http://www.tj49.com