mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Alok Govil <address@hidden>]

Dear Joris,

Thanks for a detailed reply.  I did testing based on your inputs, and here is what I find:

> > 1.  When I compare two revisions of .tm files that have no images in them, I am able to see the
> > changes highlighted.  If however I have images in either of the .tm files, I am unable to see any
> > changes.  I have attached four files that are revisions of each other, with and without images.
> 
> The diff facility is very recent and should only work for text for the moment.
> For the moment, I do not see any reasonable way for highlighting differences
> in graphics (except highlighting the two versions as a whole).
> Anyway, any ideas for improving the facility are welcome.

The key issue I see is that if images are present in any of the files, TeXmacs stops doing diff even for the text part of the files.

Here is what other software applications do:

1.  OpenOffice.org => Ignores changes in images (as well as tables).  Still shows differences in the rest
     of the text.  I find this quite deceptive.
2.  OpenOffice.org with extension "DeltaXML ODT Compare" => Highlights two versions of the images as
     a whole.  Likewise for tables.  The extension is freeware but has a restrictive license.
3.  TeXmacs => Shows no changes anywhere if images are present.  Diffs tables as a whole when no images.
4.  Microsoft Word 2007/2010 with .docx format => Highlights two versions of the images.  Does diff within the
     tables too (row deletions are shown as row deletions; text changes within a table cell are marked, etc.)
5.  Ideal case of course would be when images that are bitmapped are just highlighted while vector graphics are compared more deeply.  But I fully understand this is very hard.

My opinion is that TeXmacs should at least highlight whole images just like it does for tables, and develop Word .docx like capability in the long run.  [Some have questioned if diff should be handled by revision control software like Subversion or by the application itself.  But neither of these people have really pointed to a solution where revision control software is able to do such a thing without simply invoking diff facility provided by the application.]

> > 2.  How do I make hyperlinks clickable?  Whether activated or deactivated, I cannot 
> > click it to open the link in an Internet browser.  Right-clicking 
> > activated hyperlink shows a menu with "No action defined".  I am ready 
> > to do a deep dive into the .scm files for this if needed.
> 
> Hyperlinks are internal to TeXmacs. TeXmacs can open simple html pages,
> and does not use a web browser by default.  

So how do I make TeXmacs open a linked HTML page by clicking the hyperlink?  I am unable figure this for both activated and deactivated links.

> > 3.  Export to HTML is not working.  Output file is always zero bytes in size.
> 
> Strange; it should be.  Even on simple examples?

I tested again on 32-bit Windows XP.  It worked correctly.  I'll go back and check on the 64-bit Win7 machine I used last time again.

> > PDF export is working fine (and hyperlinks are clickable).
> > Is there some dependence on external tools?
> 
> Strange; we did not do anything for making links clickable.
> Anyway, we use ghostscript for Postscript -> Pdf conversion.

Figured this one!  A deactivated hyperlink shows up in the PDF file as is (<hlink|TeXmacs|http://www.texmacs.org>).
Acrobat Reader is able to sense the hyperlink from the text and allows me to click it!

An activated hyperlink is not clickable in the exported PDF.  I'll check TeXmacs documentation to see how to make this work.
 
> > 4.  Is there a design style for creating PowerPoint-like presentations?
> 
> Document -> Add package -> Example -> presentation
> Document -> Magnification -> 1.4 / 1.7
> Insert -> Fold -> ...
> Insert -> Animation -> ...
> 
> No documentation available yet...

This does something but it is not working right.  The TeXmacs screen stops refreshing, so becomes garbled almost right away.
I tried restarting TeXmacs with no avail.

> > 5. 
> >  If I have two paragraphs, I am not able to join them by deleting the 
> > "newline" between them.  I understand that the latter is too much 
> > classical Word processing and not the TeXmacs way!  So what is the 
> > right way then?  :-)
> 
> I don't understand what you mean by two paragraphs.
> If you have two paragraphs with simple text, then you should be
> able to join them by putting your cursor at the start of the second
> paragraph and pressing backspace.
> 
> However, if one of the paragraphs contains block markup (e.g. one of them
> is a theorem, or a list, etc...), then you cannot join them.

Got you.  This is what must have happened then as I was playing with it.  I understand now.
 
> > 6.  If I insert .PNG images, it works fine.  If I 
> > insert .gif files, they are not visible even though they block some area
> >  on the screen.  This is not a critical issue for me.
> 
> This depends a lot on the conversion tools installed on your system.
> Anyway, this will probably be fixed automatically in upcoming Qt versions.
> 
> > 7.  For tables, how do I make the borders visible or 
> > invisible?  If I create a "plain" table, then borders are visible.
> > How do I make them invisible?
> 
> Ctrl-Tab.

This worked too.  Thanks!

> > 8.  Not sure if this, but this happened to me.  If I save a .tm file without the extension in error, the style/formatting information disappears from the file.  Even changing the filename to include .tm extension did not recover it.  I have not tried to repeat this again yet.
> 
> Yes, you should use the .tm extension for saving TeXmacs files.

Got you.

Thanks and best regards - Alok