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forward-paragraph
: a Goldmine of FunctionsThe forward-paragraph
function moves point forward to the end
of the paragraph. It is usually bound to M-} and makes use of a
number of functions that are important in themselves, including
let*
, match-beginning
, and looking-at
.
The function definition for forward-paragraph
is considerably
longer than the function definition for forward-sentence
because it works with a paragraph, each line of which may begin with a
fill prefix.
A fill prefix consists of a string of characters that are repeated at
the beginning of each line. For example, in Lisp code, it is a
convention to start each line of a paragraph-long comment with
;;;
. In Text mode, four blank spaces make up another common
fill prefix, creating an indented paragraph. (See Fill Prefix, for more information about fill
prefixes.)
The existence of a fill prefix means that in addition to being able to
find the end of a paragraph whose lines begin on the left-most
column, the forward-paragraph
function must be able to find the
end of a paragraph when all or many of the lines in the buffer begin
with the fill prefix.
Moreover, it is sometimes practical to ignore a fill prefix that exists, especially when blank lines separate paragraphs. This is an added complication.
let*
expression.
while
loop.
forward-paragraph
code.