Emacs package "X-Symbol": beta version (works with Emacs)
Version 4.0g/beta (17 Dec 2001) of
package X-Symbol works with Emacs and XEmacs.
It is distributed as a source
package and as a binary
package (precompiled ``info'' files, ``pcf'' font files and ``elc''
lisp files, the latter should be recompiled if you use Emacs). See
below for how to install X-Symbol on Emacs (the
installation instruction for XEmacs is included in the manual).
The beta version works requires Emacs-21.1 or XEmacs. Image support is
not ported to Emacs yet. X-Symbol works on Windows NT/2000 with
Emacs-21.1, not XEmacs yet.
By using the beta version instead of the stable one, you support the
development of X-Symbol, which is strongly appreciated, as are bug fixes,
bug reports, improvements, and suggestions (using M-x
x-symbol-package-bug
). Please note that using a beta version of
an Emacs package requires that you are quite / a bit familiar with
Emacs/XEmacs (including a basic knowledge of Emacs Lisp).
The port (i.e., the changes between this beta version and v3.3d) is
written by Stefan Monnier. Sang-Min Lee has written a first
port to
Emacs-20.4. See the Section ``Acknowledgments'' in the manual for
details.
Changes
- Version 4.0g/beta:
- isearch+KEYBOARD also work in Emacs, isearch+MENU/GRID still fails.
Super-/subscript commands are also invisible in Emacs on Unix.
Dropped support for Emacs-20.
Make sure to convert just the first part of a multi-part image.
Don't define `locate-data-directory', interference with ps-print.
New characters zero1 to nine1 for language "Isabelle Symbol".
Better support for other packages, preview-latex. Miscellaneous.
- Version 4.0f/beta:
- Distributed with latin-3 font which also works on Emacs/Windows.
Distributed with empty font for super-/subscripts on Emacs.
Binary distribution with generated super- and subscript bdf files for Emacs/Windows.
Show super- and subscripts in TeX's math region also on Emacs.
When saving, ask for coding system less often (Emacs-21.0.104+).
Show correct double separator lines on Windows (Emacs-21.0.104+).
Corrected syntax def for cataleft/cataright as matching parens.
Adopted image converter recognition to newer releases of ImageMagick.
- Version 4.0e/beta:
- Sync with v3.3f: workaround for global-flyspell-mode, integration of
package "completion", warning when using XEmacs-21.0 to XEmacs-21.1.8.
Easier installation when using Emacs-21.0 on MS-Windows.
- Version 4.0d/beta:
- Make the highlighting in the grid buffer look nicer with Emacs.
The bug with mouse-3 over any non-highlighted part in the *Grid* will
be probably fixed with a change in Emacs-21.0.92.
- Version 4.0c/beta:
- Token language "TeXinfo command" (see below).
When x-symbol-mode is on, a char is now only valid (by default), if it
represents a token in the token language, having a 8bit representation
is not enough anymore (only if x-symbol-mode is off).
Minor changes.
- Version 4.0b/beta:
- Make the grid look the
same as with the stable version when using XEmacs.
Remove the ``local if set'' and
``default: XXX'' addition in X-Symbols submenus ``Buffer/File
Options'' and ''General Options''.
- Version 4.0a/beta:
- Distribution contains the right files.
A detailed ChangeLog
file does not exist yet.
Manual additions
The manual describes the stable version! It is not the
purpose of the beta version to add new features to X-Symbol or to change it
in another way. The purpose of the beta version is to make X-Symbol work
with Emacs.
Nevertheless, I have introduced the following minor changes.
Token language "TeXinfo command"
Token language "TeXinfo command" (texi) is by default used for buffers
in `texinfo-mode'. I recommend to use makeinfo
-4.0+ and
texi2html
-1.62+ for a near-correct output of accented letters
and special symbols. (Don't expect to see accented letters in info,
texi2html
seems to produce "SGML entities" like
&140;
--- BTW, makeinfo
's HTML output, too.)
(No, I won't put token language "TeXinfo command" into the stable version.)
Valid Characters, Prefix Key, Prefix Arguments
With x-symbol-mode is on: a character is valid if the characters could be
encoded to a token in language `x-symbol-language'. With x-symbol-mode is
off: a character is valid if it is an 8bit character according to the
value of `x-symbol-default-coding'.
Using the beta version with XEmacs
Here, you shouldn't see a big difference (to the stable version) and
shouldn't expect big differences in the future, except that the file
structure (what is in which files) will probably change a bit. But
this shouldn't be important for normal users.
Using the beta version with Emacs-21.X
(Same as ``Using the beta version with XEmacs'' and ...)
The manual does not describe Emacs specific things and the Emacs specific
Todo list. These things will be found on this web page.
TODO:
- Image support.
- Using Emacs-21's `display' text-property to make sub/super-scripts
and invisible text.
- ... .
- Manual updates, esp for Section "Installation".
See below of how to install X-Symbol on Emacs-21.X.
Using the beta version with Emacs-20.X
(Same as ``Using the beta version with Emacs-21.X and ...)
X-Symbol is not really tested to work with Emacs-20.X. It should work
with the the newest public release of Emacs (i.e., 20.X. before
Emacs-21.X is out); if not, please send me a patch or bug report
ANNOYANCES/BUGS (Emacs-20.X specific)
- The characters don't look nice (Emacs-20.4 only supports fixed-width
fonts).
- You might see hollow boxes instead "X-Symbol" characters with some font-lock faces
(there is a new font-selection mechanism in Emacs-21.0). This is even
true if you turn off font-lock.
These are reasons why I will finally drop the support for Emacs-20.4
(not earlier than 2 weeks after the release of Emacs-21). There
is nothing I can do to really avoid these annoyances; I could probably
provide some ugly half-workarounds, but they won't be nice.
The following sequence works for me:
- Uncompress & extract the binary distribution of X-Symbol into Emacs'
root directory (EMACS below = parent directory of
data-directory
).
- Delete the
.elc
files in
EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/.
- You should probably include an entry for X-Symbol into
EMACS/info/dir. See X-Symbol's manual, section "Installing
Manual".
- In ~/.emacs, use
(defvar x-symbol-lisp-directory
(expand-file-name "x-symbol"
(file-name-directory (locate-library "startup"))))
(setq load-path (cons x-symbol-lisp-directory load-path))
(setq x-symbol-data-directory
(expand-file-name "x-symbol" data-directory))
(load (expand-file-name "auto-autoloads" x-symbol-lisp-directory))
(x-symbol-initialize)
- Restart Emacs (or evaluate the code above except the last line).
- Compile the
.el
files in
EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/ via C-u 0
byte-recompile-directory
EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/
RET.
- Restart Emacs (or evaluate the last line in the code above).
- Check the characters by pressing C-= C-=. If they are not
displayed correctly, set the font path in the shell before starting Emacs
by (see the manual for details):
xset fp+ EMACS/etc/x-symbol/pcf/
Christoph Wedler
<wedler@fmi.uni-passau.de>,
19 Dec 2001