mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Javier Arántegui <address@hidden>]

Dear Joris,

El Viernes, 15 de Octubre de 2004 11:33, Joris van der Hoeven escribió:

> > (assign "citet" (macro "ref" (equal (arg "ref0") (cite (arg
> > "ref")))(range (arg "ref0") (eval "0") (minus (length (arg "ref0"))
> > "6"))" "(range (arg "ref0") (minus (length (arg "ref0")) "6")(legth (arg
> > "ref0")))))

[...]

> More seriously, at this point you did not really use Scheme, but just the
> TeXmacs macro language. The macro language is suitable for simple macros,
> but not for more complex string rewriting as you try to do here. In order
> to do what you want, you have to use the "extern" primitive, which allows
> you to use any piece of scheme in order to compute the result of your
> macro. The scheme function can be defined in your my-texmacs-init.scm and
> you should define it to be secure. Once again: search for TeXmacs-version
> in the sources and look how it works for this one.

Yes, I knew I was using TeXmacs macro language instead of Scheme, I was just 
trying to know if it was possible. Anyway, tha last saturday I started to 
learn Scheme. Now, I can define a function (only to work with numbers), use 
'cond', and write lots of parenthesis. I hope than sometime in the near 
future I will learn how to work with strings and will be able to mimic the 
behaviour of LaTeX's citet (more or less).

During this weekend one question raised, why TeXmacs uses so much Scheme. I 
don't think it's the most popular language. Maybe it's the best suited for 
the job. It's just curiosity.


> I agree that this way of doing things is a bit complicated; I might
> add some more routines for dealing with strings to the macro language
> (like searching the index for the "(" character in your example).
> However, once you understand how to interact with Scheme, you will
> also recognize the huge pour of our approach, and you will probably
> be able to do many other interesting things.

That routine would be fantastic. I don't know Scheme yet and I agree with 
you. 
I'm sure that learning Scheme is the best way to expand the capabilities of 
TeXmacs. But, I should focus on my PhD papers instead of learning Scheme...

Javier

-- 

Javier Arántegui
Dept. Tecnologia de Alimentos / Dept. of Food Technology
Universitat de Lleida / University of Lleida (Spain)
         
Tel. +34 973702595
Fax  +34 973702596
http://www.tecal.udl.es