Hello *,
On Thu, 2 May 2002, C Y wrote:
> You'll have to ask Jay about Emaxima, but you have a good point. The
> interface setup is a bit odd, and a better GUI after 6.0 will most
> likely have to address the same problems. Have you formed any thoughts
> about what the ideal setup would be to address these problems?
Yes, I wrote about it some time ago. It would be great if all prompt-like
output, i.e., output to be followed by a user input, would go through just
one function, say, (prompt "..."). Then it would be easy to redefine this
function, say, to add some ctrl-codes before and after the prompt, and an
interface would know where are the prompts, and when to wait for user
input. Now such prompt-like output function calls are scattered all over
the place, and all have to be redefined by an interface. Also, when the
user presses Enter when a statement is not complete, the current Maxima
does not issue any prompt, and an interface hangs - it waits for a prompt
forever. It would be good if the Maxima parser would call (prompt "") in
this case; a redefined prompt function will alert the interface.
Andrey