[Axiom-developer] Re: readline and axiom

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

There is a small weakness in our current readline support which could
be addressed straightforwardly if/when I get a moment.  The way it is
now, the readline library must be initialized at runtime via the lisp
command:

(si::init-readline)

The gcl wrapper script should eval this for you automatically, but it
is likely that axiom users will have to escape to lisp and run this
command unless we get something more robust implemented.  On maxima,
this looks like

:lisp (si::init-readline)

In addition, our readline code will probe the running terminal, and
skip readline initialization if the controlling terminal is not
readline capable, e.g. an emacs shell buffer, and ilisp emacs
interface to gcl, etc.  Here is the existing code for this test:

        if (!isatty(0))
           return;

        if ((cp=getenv("TERM")) && !strcmp(cp,"dumb"))
           return;

Bill, you have access to linux too, no?  Would be nice if you could
report any readline functionality differences between the to ports, if
any. 

Take care,

"Page, Bill" <address@hidden> writes:

> Tim, Camm;
> 
> Am I confused over how readline is supposed to work
> with GCL and Axiom?
> 
> Under the Windows version of GCL 2.6.1, I can enter
> an expression like
> 
>   > (+ 1 1)
> 
> and then hit the up arrow key and make a change
> say to
> 
>   > (+ 1 2)
> 
> and just hit enter to execute the edited line.
> 
> I have not been able to do the equivalent under Axiom.
> When I press up arrow I get
> 
>   ^[0A
> 
> (^[ means "escape"?) which of course Axiom doesn't
> understand.
> 
> And I have just tested the new GCL 2.6.1-16 built
> with --enable-static and --enable-readline and I get
> the same weird characters rather than the "readline"
> behaviour that I expected.
> 
> Am I doing something wrong? Is there something that
> has to be enabled in GCL as part of the startup?
> 
> Regards,
> Bill Page.
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
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