Re: [Axiom-developer] RE: [Texmacs-dev] New tm_axiom.c & question on stderr

[Mike Dewar]

Hi Bill,

There seems to be a misconception that the NAG version of Axiom puts out
two prompts on startup while the Open version puts out one.  This is not
actually true: the Axiom interpreter (invoked via the command `AXIOMsys'
in the NAG version, and presumably via `axiom' in your version) only
puts out one prompt: the reason you can see two is that sman (the
"Superman" process that manages communication between the interpreter,
hyperdoc, browser, graphics etc.) causes the interpreter to start a new
frame, which forces a new prompt (you can do the same by typing ")frame
new foo").  Once Tim gets sman working the Open version will presumably
work in the same way.  So your new tm_axiom ought to work the same way
with both versions if they are invoked in the equivalent way.

I haven't seen the TeXmacs interface to Axiom but we used to maintain a
TeX-based interface under Windows (based on IBM's TechExplorer) and it
had lots of nice features - a TeX version of the browser, the ability to
execute worksheets etc.  Some of this code was embedded in the front-end
but the browser code, for example, was all in boot.  The main file in
question was br-saturn.boot ("saturn" was IBM's pre-release name for
TechExplorer) and we also used the $saturn variable to test whether we
were in TechExplorer or not in a few places (this was so we could use
the same CCL image files for both the TechExplorer and shell interfaces
of Axiom under Windows).  It might be worth somebody trying to resurrect
this code - the only hitch I can foresee is that we added a grep command
to CCL (coded in C) since Windows doesn't have a grep program, but you
can always spawn off a system command under Unix (which is what the
original IBM version of Axiom did) to get the same result.

Mike.

On Wed, Oct 01, 2003 at 12:01:43PM -0400, Page, Bill wrote:
> TeXmacs Developers;
> 
> I have posted a new version of tm_axiom to the Axiom
> web site. See Axiom_Texmacs 1.0.2 at
> 
>     http://savannah.nongnu.org/files/?group=axiom
> 
> This version is compatible with the recent alpha release
> of Axiom/OS (i.e. Axiom / Open Source. We need an
> appropriate name for this new version of Axiom. What do
> you think?). It expects only one initial prompt from
> Axiom, not two like the older version of Axiom. It also
> incorporates the sophisticated LaTeX equation line breaking
> algorithm that was developed specifically for use with
> Axiom by Robert Sutor (a major contributor to Axiom).
> 
> I have two questions. First, I would like to be able to
> pass some command line options to the tm_axiom program
> when it is started by TeXmacs. Specifically, for compatiblity
> with the older version of Axiom, it would be nice to be
> able to adjust the number of intial prompts, for example
> by setting it to 2 for the NAG commercial version. Another
> option might be setting the line break length. Right now
> the value of 4.5 inches is hard coded.
> 
> Assuming I can pass these options, the next issue is how
> to conveniently set them inside of TeXmacs. The number
> of initial prompts only needs to be set when the Axiom
> interface is installed or changed. But the line break
> length should be easily adjusted by the user and must
> relate to a parameter already maintained automatically by
> TeXmacs and stored with each document.
> 
> The second question I have is: What is the best approach
> to implement a new Session menu option that would
> re-execute all of the sessions contained in a document?
> This is a very common operation when using TeXmacs as
> a "worksheet" interface to computer algebra systems. It
> needs to be able to re-execute all of the embedded
> session commands (for Axiom and other external systems)
> starting from the top of the document and working down
> to the end. It must make only the minimum change to the
> document to update all of the session outputs without
> introducing any new session inputs.
> 
> Should I try to do this through a scheme script? (Oh no,
> more stuff to learn ... <sigh>).
> 
> Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Regards,
> Bill Page.
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Joris van der Hoeven [mailto:address@hidden
> > Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 4:46 PM
> > To: address@hidden
> > Subject: Re: [Texmacs-dev] New tm_axiom.c & question on stderr
> > 
> > > > OK, I will try that soon.
> > >
> > > Tim reminded me that this build may not work on any kind of 
> > > linux. Mine is debian 3.0 i686.
> > >
> > > In any case, we will try to upload several builds on different
> > > system. What is your linux system (distribution, version)?
> > 
> > I will ask tomorrow; I am abroad...
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Texmacs-dev mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/texmacs-dev
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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