[_19qg]

With paredit in GNU Emacs:

1) place the cursor on the left parenthesis of the form

2) type paredit-wrap-round: M-(

3) type: if flag

Doesn't appear to be overly complex.

[kagevf]

With built-in emacs functionality you can do:

1. Place the cursor on the left parenthesis of the form (same as you wrote)

2. C-M-Space to select the form.

3. M-( to surrond with parenthesis.

4. type "if flag" (same as you wrote for #3)

One extra step, but no need for a plugin.

Also, I added a simple "insert-quotes" that I think I mostly copy-pasted from the built-in "insert-parentheses":

  (defun insert-quotes (&optional arg)
    (interactive "P")
    (insert-pair arg ?\" ?\"))

So I can replace my #3 above to wrap something with quotes instead of parentheses.

[lispm]

> So I can replace my #3 above to wrap something with quotes instead of parentheses.

That's M-" .

[sudahtigabulan]

Typing "(if flag", and then C-Right to slurp the call in is also intuitive and short.

What truly confuses me is how the PP claims they "went in completely" and "did this for a few months", yet they failed to learn the basics.