Overview Features Set-Up Manual (html) Manual (ps) Changes + Distribution

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:

  1. Image support.
  2. Using Emacs-21's `display' text-property to make sub/super-scripts and invisible text.
  3. ... .
  4. 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)

  1. The characters don't look nice (Emacs-20.4 only supports fixed-width fonts).
  2. 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.

Installing X-Symbol on Emacs-21.X

The following sequence works for me:

  1. Uncompress & extract the binary distribution of X-Symbol into Emacs' root directory (EMACS below = parent directory of data-directory).
  2. Delete the .elc files in EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/.
  3. You should probably include an entry for X-Symbol into EMACS/info/dir. See X-Symbol's manual, section "Installing Manual".
  4. 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)
  5. Restart Emacs (or evaluate the code above except the last line).
  6. Compile the .el files in EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/ via C-u 0 byte-recompile-directory EMACS/lisp/x-symbol/ RET.
  7. Restart Emacs (or evaluate the last line in the code above).
  8. 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/

Overview Features Set-Up Manual (html) Manual (ps) Changes + Distribution

Christoph Wedler <wedler@fmi.uni-passau.de>, 19 Dec 2001