Am 13.10.04 19:39 schrieb Richard Fateman:
>
> Michael Reimpell wrote:
>
>
>>I'm happy someone started a GUI project without relying on maximas latex
>>representation. In fact, using the 1D-output seems to be the only reasonable
>>way to implement copy and paste actions from parts of the output into a new
>>input line.
>>
>
> I agree. There are at least these representations available:
> 1. the internal lisp version as a text string. e.g. ((MPLUS SIMP) $X
> $Y) or as a data structure if you are still in lisp.
> 2. the formatted version, also in lisp, that changes stuff like
> a*b^(-1) into a/b for pre-display consideration
> 3. the layout version (which does line breaking and knows how long names
> are)
> 4. the text string as a command, e.g. X+Y;
> 5. the text string as a LaTex command.
>
> Mathematica, and the commercial Macsyma front end appear to use #4.
> TexMacs appears to use #5.
> I think that, suitably enhanced for a larger, variable-sized character
> set, #3 is probably better, since
> it has full access to all the information in the maxima system, instead
> of just the stuff that
> was programmed in python (or C++ or ....) in the front end.
>
> Of course this perspective is from the computer algebra system. If what
> you are building
> is primarily a GUI for (say) maxima, tex, matlab, GAP, web browsers,
> search engines, ... etc
> and maxima is just a specialized client for a small percentage of users,
> then the GUI
> arguably should be the boss. The usual downside of this is that some
> things are either
> impossible or very very hard to do. (The lisp code shows very
> explicitly what expressions
> are subexpressions of others. Do we really need to re-parse? )
>
> RJF
Just a step back -
i made an interface for ARIBASW.exe which simply provides a
better input-scheme (long lines, multilines, common text-
editable) which serves extremely well, without interpreting
input or output specifically.
It only overcomes the mixing of in/out and the need for
excessive copy&paste.
If I could find a way to connect to the maxima-input-procedure,
this could easily be adapted to maxima, and I would give it
just for free (it's windows and delphi 32bit, btw).
A screenshot of the AribasGUI could be seen at
http://www.uni-kassel.de/~helms/sw/aribashlp/aribashlp_bilder.htm
where the relevant thing is the "dialog"-rtf-component, which
serves as an inplace-editing-able editor.
The output is not accessed, but this could possibly adapted as well.
Whether or not someone is interested on this thing, I would
really appreciate to find the input/output-interface
of maxima at least for my own needs.
Gottfried Helms