I want to keep all syntax highlighting, autocomplete, commands etc. of Emacs c-mode (and I'll add in company-mode or similar shortly) but I want to disable everything in c-mode which:
Reformats other than if I C-<command> or M-<command> ask it to.
Moves my cursor around the source, even momentarily, unless I asked for it. For example, closing parens/braces highlighting the matching one.
Ever i) inserts anything I didn't type (other than 1 Tab = 4 spaces) or ii) refuses to insert something I did type because formatting.
Reformats, repaginates, realigns or otherwise edits the source for any reason, including on paste, on save, or because the moon is gibbous.
I've already set (setq-default c-basic-offset 4) and (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil).
I have tried:
C-x C-l a.k.a. c-toggle-electric-state a.k.a. (setq-default c-electric-flag nil) which fixes some of 4, but Tab still reformats code when it feels inclined, and I'm guessing isn't alone; and doesn't fix 2 or 3.
c-auto-align-backslashes which fixes one above case only.
(setq c-syntactic-indentation nil) which partially fixes 4, but breaks 1 and 3 (for instance, Tab doesn't insert at the cursor), and doesn't fix 2.
text-mode which obviously removes all the c-mode features I want to keep.
Various searches and dives into https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/ccmode.html, which carefully documents 2^1024 settings but doesn't exhibit an "all formatting off" switch that I can find.
Scanning https://sourceforge.net/p/cc-mode/cc-mode/ci/default/tree/ for obvious flags to disable (*blork*?)
I've been at this for hours, so any help gratefully received.
Update: More thrashing around: installing emacs source code (apt-get install emacs24-el) and using C-h k <key combo> to find the function called when a key is pressed. M-x find-function to browse that source to work out what it's actually doing and look for hooks. (setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil) to stick with spaces, not tabs. (setq-default blink-matching-paren nil) to prevent cursor jump on closing parens/braces. I still can't disable formatting, or achieve 1, 2, 3 and 4, but I'm getting better at whack-a-mole.
First observation: this is a difficult sort of question to answer, because "disable everything that does ...." is a bit unspecific. However...
Item 2. (Moving point momentarily to the matching open paren when you type a close paren) is easy: (setq blink-matching-paren nil). This is in the Emacs manual on page "Matching Parentheses". (Whoops! You've already found that one).
You don't like the action of the tab key; what do you want it to do? It's bound to c-indent-command, which indents the current line inwards or outwards to the "correct" position. I'm guessing you want simply to insert spaces to bring point to the next 4*nth position. How about tab-to-tab-stop? Try (define-key c-mode-base-map "\t" 'tab-to-tab-stop). Note that defining it in the default key map would not work, since the major mode key map takes priority over it.
Having done C-c C-l to disable the automatic indentation on typing, e.g., a ;, does typing a ; still do anything to offend? If so, you could disable its "special" features entirely with (define-key c-mode-base-map ";" 'self-insert-command)
Again, a list of specific things you don't like, even a long list, is a lot easier to deal with than "everything which inserts anything I didn't type". The maintainer of the mode just doesn't mentally classify things that way.
Anyhow, I hope you manage to get things sorted out.