I am writing a function that tries alternative transformations and returns an alternative
having the least estimated display width in wxMaxima as if no line breaks were required.
(I take this as a crude measure of the "comprehensibility").
The absolute widths in centimeters, pixels or em-spaces don't matter.
All that matters is which are shortest.
The choice could depend on the current
settings of
"Maxima > Change 2d Display",
"Edit > Options > Keep percent sign with special symbols",
"Edit > Style",
"Edit > Set Zoom".
The easiest way for me to automatically take account of all of this is to invoke the internal
interface function that computes the display boxes -- preferably before inserting line breaks
-- then extract the desired metric from the result.
What is the name of that function, what does it return, and how is it invoked from within
Maxima?
If there is no such function that doesn't also have the side effect of doing the display, then
1. How do I access the interface variables that tell me the relevent current choices set via
the above menus?
2. Where do I obtain information about the widths of individual characters and kerning tables?
-- Thanks in advance for any help with this.