[AUCTeX-devel] Re: Toolbar-x development

[Reiner Steib]

On Fri, Jul 28 2006, David Kastrup wrote:

>>> On Fri, Jul 28 2006, Miguel V. S. Frasson wrote:
>>> > In my free time, I have been developing toolbar-x to improve
>>> > performance.  After some ponderation, I realized that there were
>>> > some wrong decisions in the implementation.  The code, although
>>> > it works (far from optimally), is not easily understandable
>>> > (difficulting maintainability).
>
> This is quite important.  Next is how well it is documented.  After
> all, toolbar-x is supposedly useful for more than just AUCTeX.  And of
> course, important is how easy it is to understand how to use its
> interfaces.

When implementing customizable tool bars for Gnus (with Gnome style
icons), I also looked at `tex-bar.el' and `toolbar-x.el'.  But I
didn't have much time to study the code and comments in detail so I
implemented it from scratch.  See `gmm-utils.el' for some common
utility functions and e.g. `message.el' for the usage (in the Emacs
CVS of Gnus CVS).  My implementation is only for Emacs because Gnus'
tool bar setup was separated and Gnome icons don't make much sense
beside the current XEmacs icons, IMHO.

>>> > * There is a single and important sintax change: the argument
>>> > `meaning-alist' becomes `meaning-alists' which is a list of alists or
>>> > variable bound to alists.

The term "*-meaning-alist" always looked odd to me.  Wouldn't
"*-definition-alist" or "*-definitions" be better names?

>>> > * David asked me for the omega icon with a sumo fighter head, (I
>>> > understood that it should be the TeX lion's head).  It is almost
>>> > looking good. Eventually I will deliver it.
>
> It will probably make more people play around with Omega than anything
> else at this point of time.
>
> I can't think of good visuals for source specials and interactive mode
> right now.

For icons corresponding to the `<menu-bar> <Command> <TeXing Options>
...' toggles?

source specials: maybe a left-right arrow between the glasses (which
we use for dvi) and a text sheet?

interactive mode: The TeX lion combined with a TeX prompt[1].  This
might be too difficult to visualize.

Bye, Reiner.

[1]
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