Emacs lisp; how to make a string from a variable of any type?
elisp
Solution
Look into `prin1-to-string` and related functions (`prin1`, `princ`, etc). And do try the manual! http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Output-Functions.html
Problem
Like error messages for wrongly called functions show, eg.: ``` (message (file-attributes ".")) ``` Produces the message: ``` "eval: Wrong type argument: stringp, ("/home14/tjones" 1 0 0 (20415 35598) (20211 19255) (20211 19255) 14 "lrwxrwxrwx" t ...)" ``` How do you do this type of translation intentionally, eg.: ``` (message (thing-to-string (file-attributes "."))) ``` To message something like: ``` ("/home14/tjones" 1 0 0 (20415 35598) (20211 19255) (20211 19255) 14 "lrwxrwxrwx" t ...) ``` This is for debugging/info only. I'm assuming there's a way as message is doing it, but is this exposed to us users?