read syntax for regular exps

[B. T. Raven]

Hello:

I want to put the following manual procedures into a function so I can
modify a bunch of files more conveniently but I am unable to get the
elisp right.  (_ is literal space char)

C-M-% _+ RET _  RET       ;; collapse all instances of multiple spaces
to one

C-M-%  _+$ RET RET       ;; remove all spaces on otherwise blank lines

C-M-% _+\([;!?:]\) RET \1 RET  ;; remove spaces before sem, bang, quest,
colon

C-M-% \(^C-qC-j\)+ RET \1 RET  ;; collapse multiple blank lines into one

I assume that I need something like this wrapped in a lambda??

(interactive "r")
or just
(interactive)
if I don't use regions,

and then

(goto-char start)
(replace-regexp " +" " ")

four times, mutatis mutandis.

I am having special trouble with the \ paren parts of strings. Is there
example code of this anywhere? The elisp manual seems a little too
difficult for me.



Thanks,

Ed