Re: Showing compilation progress indicator

[Ikumi Keita]

Hi Al and Arash,

>>>>> Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org> writes:
>> All this functionality (and other) is implemented in Emacs' `compile`
>> module. AUCTeX seems to modify `compilation-in-progress` manually
>> instead of calling `compilation-start` as I believe is intended by the
>> `compile` package. Other features, like error extraction, is also
>> replicated in AUCTeX instead of using Emacs' `compile`
>> implementation. I am not sure what the rational behind this is.

> I can't tell for sure, but the usual suspects are compatibility with
> older Emacs'en, compatibility with XEmacs, code was in AUCTeX before it
> was in Emacs core etc.

I agree with that inference.

>> If AUCTeX is modified to use `compile` correctly, then I (and others)
>> can use/write packages for Emacs `compile` and AUCTeX would be
>> automatically supported.
>> 
>> This can be a big change to AUCTeX and the only purpose of it is to
>> have a more consistent Emacs experience, so I wonder if this would be
>> something that the AUCTeX community would consider/is interested in
>> pursuing.

> Since AUCTeX dropped supporting XEmacs and also tries to support not so
> old GNU Emacs versions, I think it is good to rely on functionality
> provided by the core.  I'd say patches are welcome.  What do others
> think?

I'll mention a loosely related topic. AUCTeX calls `comint-exec' and
`comint-mode' in `TeX-run-interactive'. These functions are not
autoloaded, so `TeX-run-interactive' requires `comint' explicitly. In
addition, tex.el has `declare-function's for them. I'm afraid that
AUCTeX doesn't follow the way which comint.el intends to be used by
external packages.

So I think it would be nice if `TeX-run-interactive' is modified to use
public entry points of comint.el (`make-comint-in-buffer', `make-comint'
and `comint-run' are autoloaded, at least in emacs 28.1). Then we can
omit `(require 'comint)' and `declare-function's from tex.el.

Regards,
Ikumi Keita
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