Re: Suggestion (was Re: [Texmacs-dev] Interactive feedback)

[David Allouche]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 01:42:07PM +0100, Álvaro Tejero Cantero wrote:
> I believe I don't fully understand your proposal, since e.g. I don't
> know what continuations are. But as I had a precooked suggestion on
> aiding user input without resorting to new widgets (i.e. inside the
> document), I'll post it in this thread for the record.

Indeed, that is not at all relevant to the discussion. But that is
interesting nonetheless.

> first way (current): 
> 
>                       <reference|...>
> 
> second way (proposed, perhaps as a "variant" for inactive content):
> 
>                       <reference|label name?...>

So far, that really just look like a request to extend typeset_inactive.

It would indeed make sense to define the inactive presentation of tags
using macros. Maybe something like

(drd-props "reference" "inactive-macro"
  (macro "x" (inactive* "reference"
               (inactive-arg (concat "label name? " (arg "x"))))))

(caveat: I have not yet examined how the drd-props primitive actually
should be used, so this snippet is just creative bullshit)

> that is: we get something from the source code definition of the
> reference tag and use it to better inform the user. That would also
> render semi-useless a "tag manual", since every tag is self-documenting,
> as should be in a really good good system (i.e. no need to read
> manuals).
> 
> The <reference|> is really a dummy example, but think of the
> <postscript|||||||>. Everybody complais they don't understand the
> expected options.... well that should be like:
> 
> <postscript|filename?...|scale?...|crop?...|your-option-here?...>

Some hints there would indeed be a good thing. But the "postscript"
primitive is so overloaded that I do not think you can understand the
use of its arguments w/o reading the documentation.

> [whether it's better that all the "hints" (attribute names) appear
> simultaneously or not could be discussed]

Making it possible to only display hints for the argument the caret is
in would also be a whole different affair, and I do not know how it
should be implemented. Joris?

> The proposal can also be coupled with the use of a part of the
> minibuffer to print the help texts while in inactive elements or while
> being asked inside the minibuffer for input.

I vaguely gather what you want to do with minibuffer hints but, again, I
do not know how that should be done... Using tag-info, dynamic editing,
or something new...

And I do not see at all what you mean about combining in-document hints
and minibuffer input.

-- 
                                                            -- ddaa