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Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes.
From: |
Robert J. Chassell |
Subject: |
Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes. |
Date: |
Sat, 18 Sep 2004 11:37:43 -0400 (EDT) |
As Kai Grossjohann said,
Emacs already displays something that's different than what is present
in the file
Yes, indeed. For a high resolution, word-processor-style display, two
questions arise. But first, a look at the past.
Version 18 Emacs had:
* the same rendering device (a character-only display screen)
that used different Emacs rendering programs
to produce differently displayed expressions
of the same info formatted file; for example:
in Emacs, find-file
in Emacs, Info
* different rendering devices (a character-only display screen, paper)
that used different rendering programs, some not Emacs,
to produce differently displayed expressions
of the same DVI formatted file; for example:
in Emacs, find-file
not in Emacs, xdvi in X
not in Emacs, printer
* different conversion programs, some not Emacs,
to produce different files
from the same Texinfo formatted file; for example:
in Emacs, texinfo-format-* to convert Texinfo to Info
not in Emacs, tex to convert Texinfo to DVI
Version 21 Emacs supports three rendering devices:
* character-only display screen
* bit-mapped display screen, as in X
* sound device
Two questions arise. In Emacs, in a bit-mapped display screen, as in
X, should a future Emacs support a high resolution,
word-processor-style display
1. by breaking current, basic Emacs design assumptions? This would
require a different display engine, as `xdvi' or `mozilla' now
are, but integrated within Emacs. Or,
2. by using current, basic Emacs design assumptions? This might mean
using two new modules (which are perhaps seen by a novice user as
making up one program, evoked as one Emacs command):
* a module to convert from the deep representation or `encoded
document file' to an intermediate representation containing,
as Eli Zaretskii suggested,
"a combination of characters and text properties, such
that Lisp programs and C code that look at the buffer
text could extract the layout information from that
text alone"
(This is similar to what `makeinfo --html' now does, with two
exceptions:
-- `makeinfo' is not part of Emacs, although two rendering
programs, `find-file' and `w3' are a part; and,
-- `makeinfo' creates a stand-alone output file rather than a
temporary file used within Emacs.)
* a module to render from the intermediate representation to the
display, as `find-file' with Enriched mode or `w3' or Info now
do, but with a more word-processor-like look.
For read-only displays, either solution fits the
single-deep-representation-input/multiple-surface-expression-outputs
model I discussed on this list some time ago.
However, people like to edit the various different surface expressions
for paper, for a graphic display, and for a sound device, as well as
the deep representation that holds them. So people prefer read-write
capability.
(A long time ago, I proposed a user interface design to handle the
display of the results of a slow, asynchronous conversion program
within Emacs without requiring the Emacs display to halt. For
example, this design -- showing a moving `wave of change' in a scroll
bar -- would enable an Emacs user both to view two parts of a long
file, one near its beginning and the other near its end, and to edit
them even after starting a `tex' update near the beginning and not
have its changes progress to the end for many seconds.)
--
Robert J. Chassell
address@hidden GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., (continued)
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Oliver Scholz, 2004/09/16
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Eli Zaretskii, 2004/09/17
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Oliver Scholz, 2004/09/17
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Kai Grossjohann, 2004/09/17
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Kim F. Storm, 2004/09/17
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Richard Stallman, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes.,
Robert J. Chassell <=
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Eli Zaretskii, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., David Kastrup, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Eli Zaretskii, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., David Kastrup, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Eli Zaretskii, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Kai Grossjohann, 2004/09/19
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Richard Stallman, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Oliver Scholz, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Eli Zaretskii, 2004/09/18
- Re: enriched-mode and switching major modes., Oliver Scholz, 2004/09/18