12.9.7 @point{} (∗): Indicating Point in a Buffer

Sometimes you need to show an example of text in an Emacs buffer. In such examples, the convention is to include the entire contents of the buffer in question between two lines of dashes containing the buffer name.

You can use the ‘@point{}’ command to show the location of point in the text in the buffer. (The symbol for point, of course, is not part of the text in the buffer; it indicates the place between two characters where point is located.)

The @point{} command is displayed as ‘∗’, either a pointed star or (when that is not available) the ASCII sequence ‘-!-’.

The following example shows the contents of buffer foo before and after evaluating a Lisp command to insert the word changed.

---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the ∗contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------

(insert "changed ")
    ⇒ nil
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the changed ∗contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------

In a Texinfo source file, the example is written like this:

@example
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the @point{}contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------

(insert "changed ")
    @result{} nil
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the changed @point{}contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
@end example