[Axiom-developer] RE: TeXmacs+Axiom

[Bill Page]

Martin,

On May 21, 2007 2:39 PM you wrote:
> 
> I just installed TeXmacs (version 1.0.6 on kubuntu), but I 
> also have trouble getting it to work with axiom.  Additionally,
> it seems extremely slow, but maybe that's due to my laptop
> showing its age.

Probably both. Even on a reasonably fast dual processor
AMD 4300+ X2, I find TeXmacs rather slow compared to most
other apps.

Note: TeXmacs does things like build a lot of fonts when
it is first used. This can give the appearance of being
very slow at first, but this happens only once as the font
cache is built as needed.

> 
> Since I'm not going to use TeXmacs myself, speed is not that 
> much an issue. I'd just like to know how to get it work in
> order to be able to help others.

Ok. I think one can get used to the slow speed if you learn
to like TeXmacs' features.

> 
> After starting texmacs, and finding out that I have to click 
> on insert-session, there was no Axiom entry in the menu.
> After a little hacking, I found that init-axiom-scm expects
> axiom to reside in /usr/bin/axiom, which isn't the case
> on my machine, and probably not on many others, since many 
> people will not be root, I guess.
> 
> Thus I changed /usr/bin/axiom to $AXIOM/bin/axiom:
> 
>  (:require (url-exists-in-path? "$AXIOM/bin/axiom"))
> 
> and indeed, Axiom now shows up as a supported session.  

Good.

> However, I get the same error as Ralf, although AXIOMsys
> and axiom certainly are in the path.  (and I didn't modify
> tm_axiom either) Note however, that I'm using wh-sandbox,
> which has a slightly different banner. Maybe that's the
> problem?

Maybe.

> 
> On the console I get:
> 
> address@hidden:~$ texmacs --debug-io
> TeXmacs] With linked TrueType support
> TeXmacs] Launching 'tm_axiom'
> [BEGIN]verbatim:
> 

Can you tell me what you get if you just start tm_axiom
on the console? E.g.

  $ /usr/lib/TeXmacs/bin/tm_axiom

Reply to the weird looking prompt with an Axiom command,
e.g. 1+1

  <verbatim:<channel:prompt<latex:\red$\rightarrow$\ verbatim:1+1

you should see a coded response from Axiom like:

  <latex:$\displaystyle
  2 \leqno(1)$
  <latex:]axiomtype{PositiveIntegeer
  }<channel:prompt<lastex:\red$\rightarrow$\ <verbatim:

This is the kind of protocol that tm_axiom normally sends to
TeXmacs.

There a few control characters embedded in this output so it
might not look exactly as I keyed above, but it should be
obvious that tm_axiom is communicating with Axiom. Hitting
control-D should end the session normally.

Let me know if this works for you or what error message
you get.

Regards,
Bill Page.