mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden>]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Christopher Lee wrote:

> I'm trying to improve the session interface and have an initial
> bit of code working.  It allows you to insert a "mycas" session which
> starts up a bash shell and allows you to use other interactive
> programs (cf. Stephane Payrard's message of 24 Sept 2001).  It's
> crude, but useful to me already so I thought I would put it out.
> 
> -chris
> 
> <<< From the README >>>
> 
> ptyfilter
> ---------
> Summary:
> 
>   A generic pseudo-terminal interface to TeXmacs.
> 
>       Download site:  
> ftp://retina3.wustl.edu:/pub/chris/texmacs-ptyfilter.tar.gz

Thanks a lot for your work. The program looks great,
although a few adjustments need to be made.
It would be nice if we could use your program as a replacement
for the usual 'shell' sessions. A few remarks:

* I needed to start bash with --rcfile instead of --init-file
  in order to get things working. We would need something
  which *always* works.

* Please name your program tm_bash and I will do the necessary so that
  the initialization & style files will be OK in the next distribution.

* There seems to be a synchronization problem from time to time.
  For instance, when doing 'ls -l', it may happen that I only get
  a first part of the output and that I have to press return
  in a new input in order to get the rest.

* What do you suggest in order to handle user input?
  At the momentwe start a new input environment
  for each new input. For certain applications (like 'more'),
  one might want to do something else. Maybe several options
  should be possible?

* About several options: in the future we might think about
  enhancing your program in such a way that programs which
  are written with this purpose in mind may provide structured
  input and/or output, like the computer algebra systems
  which have been linked to TeXmacs. That would yield the first
  occurence (up to my knowledge) of a ``structured shell''.
  A less ambitious project might also be colored output,
  like the output of an 'ls'.

>   I am new to TeXmacs and think it's great.  I'm just starting to read
>   through the documentation,, but I thought I might be able to help by
>   improving the interfacing to outside functions.  Version 0.01
>   represents my first attempt.

Thanks; I think that you got some very good understanding of
the program so far, if you just began using it :^)
In any case, thanks again for your useful contribution and
I am indeed interested in further help.

Best regards,

Joris