Re: [Texmacs-dev] a proposal for printing interval selection syntax

[Joris van der Hoeven]

> I want to propose a syntax for the minibuffer print command.
> If something of this is done, it could be reused in a (future) graphical
> interface. The intent is to make simple things simple (and fast to type)
> and complex things possible.
>
> The main idea is that we could treat the printing commandline as a set
> expression. Set elements are ranges or filters. In case of no
> disambiguating parenthesization, union is to proceed before to
> intersection (contrarywise to common practice).
>
> For the sake of the proposal, lets use "," as union, "/" as intersection
> and "-" as a range indicator. Ranges are of the form a-b unless one
> number is missing, in which case they are to be understood as first-b or
> a-last. If the range indicator is missing, then it is the trivial range
> a-a.
>
> Then when one invokes "print" through the menu or the shortcuts one
> accomplishes frequent tasks as follows:
>
>
> Print page 27: (compared to entering 27 twice now)
> >Print what: 27
>
> Print pages 27 to 34:
> >Print what: 27-34
>
> Print also 56 to 63 and 87 to end
> >Print what: 27-34, 56-63, 87-
>
> ... but only odd:
> >Print what: 27-34, 56-63, 87- / odd
>
> etc...
>
> It would also be cool to be able to print structural units (by
> specifying a unit and a counter number..?) but here it's just about a
> syntax to make printing friendlier.
>
> A possible way to enhance the minibuffer's usability is to print a
> right-aligned example or help text in the very minibuffer.

On the one hand side I think that your proposal maybe nice
for expert users. However, for novices, the status bar cannot contain
sufficiently much information in order to explain the conventions.
So the idea seems to be hard to implement in a nice way ...
and ... I will probably not have time for this.