RE: user-input ?

[Drew Adams]

    I need to read some input from the user, but I was not
    able to find anything about that, in the elisp manual.

It's hard to believe you looked. At the top level of the Emacs Lisp manual
is this menu entry:

 * Minibuffers:: Using the minibuffer to read input.

How did I find it quickly? `s read RET'.

And before you delve into the Elisp manual, you should try `apropos'. `M-x
apropos RET read' shows the following, plus many more entries:

completing-read - Read a string in the minibuffer, with completion.

face-read-integer - Interactively read an integer face attribute value.

facemenu-read-color - Read a color using the minibuffer.

format-read - Read and return the name of a format.

ido-completing-read - Ido replacement for the built-in `completing-read'.

ido-read-buffer - Ido replacement for the built-in `read-buffer'.

ido-read-directory-name - Ido replacement for the built-in
`read-directory-name'.

ido-read-file-name - Ido replacement for the built-in `read-file-name'.

read-buffer - Read the name of a buffer and return as a string.

read-char - Read a character from the command input (keyboard or macro).

read-charset - Read a character set from the minibuffer, prompting with
string PROMPT.

read-coding-system - Read a coding system from the minibuffer, prompting
with string PROMPT.

read-command - Read the name of a command and return as a symbol.

read-envvar-name - Read environment variable name, prompting with PROMPT.

read-event - Read an event object from the input stream.

read-face-and-attribute - Read face name and face attribute value.

read-face-attribute - Interactively read a new value for FACE's ATTRIBUTE.

read-face-font - Read the name of a font for FACE on FRAME.

read-face-name - Read a face, defaulting to the face or faces on the char
after point.

read-file-name - Read file name, prompting with PROMPT and completing in
directory DIR.

read-from-minibuffer - Read a string from the minibuffer, prompting with
string PROMPT.

read-from-string - Read one Lisp expression which is represented as text by
STRING.

read-hiragana-string - Read a Hiragana string from the minibuffer, prompting
with string PROMPT.

read-input - Read a string from the minibuffer, prompting with string
PROMPT.

read-input-method-name - Read a name of input method from a minibuffer
prompting with PROMPT.

read-key-sequence - Read a sequence of keystrokes and return as a string or
vector.

read-key-sequence-vector - Like `read-key-sequence' but always return a
vector.

read-language-name - Read a language environment name which has information
for KEY.

read-minibuffer - Return a Lisp object read using the minibuffer,
unevaluated.

read-multilingual-string - Read a multilingual string from minibuffer,
prompting with string PROMPT.

read-no-blanks-input - Read a string from the terminal, not allowing blanks.

read-non-nil-coding-system - Read a coding system from the minibuffer,
prompting with string PROMPT.

read-passwd - Read a password, prompting with PROMPT, and return it.

read-quoted-char - Like `read-char', but do not allow quitting.

read-string - Read a string from the minibuffer, prompting with string
PROMPT.

read-variable - Read the name of a user variable and return it as a symbol.

strokes-read-complex-stroke - Read a complex stroke (interactively) and
return the stroke.

strokes-read-stroke - Read a simple stroke (interactively) and return the
stroke.


Decide *what* you want to read, then look closer at the list above... Look
up whatever function interests you in the Elisp manual, or use `C-h f', or
look at the source code that defines it.

It doesn't get any easier than this.