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Joris van der Hoeven 2011-09-06 13:54:49 +00:00
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<style|tmdoc>
<\body>
<tmdoc-title|Improving the current implementation>
<tmdoc-title|To do list for the current implementation>
<with|color|red|[Should be completed]>
<section|General architecture>
<section|Memory management>
<subsection|Implementation of better debugging tools>
If I have the courage, I might one day write a garbage collector for
<TeXmacs>.
<\description>
<item*|Error recovery>
<section|Encodings and fonts>
Mechanism to recover all C++ and scheme error messages in a dedicated
<TeXmacs> buffer, together with foldable backtraces.
<\itemize>
<item>Systematically use Unicode.
<item*|Locations>
<item>Some changes have still to be made in the way font encodings are
handled. This should make it easier to maintain fonts with characters
from several physical fonts, virtual fonts, special characters, etc.
Provide correct locations for the <scm|texmacs-error> primitive. Also
provide line numbers in C++ crash reports.
<item>Currently, the current logical font is determined from a fixed set
of environment variables only. The current typesetting font should rather
be a tree (instead of a string), which is evaluated (so that environment
<item*|Exception semantics>
Provide a clean exception semantics for all routines in the basic APIs.
<item*|Throw-catch>
Try hard to recover from errors and segmentation faults, except when
configuring using <verbatim|--enable-debug>.
<item*|Test suite>
Test-suite of <TeXmacs> documents for different features and automated
checks for certain types of correctness.
<item*|Memory leaks>
Perform extensive (automated) checks for memory leaks using
<name|Valgrind> and implement a<nbsp>marking algorithm.
</description>
<subsection|Improving the speed>
<\description>
<item*|Internal data representation>
Encode the system environment variables; this will globally accelerate
the program. Also, intermediate data during the typesetting process might
be encoded in a more binary way.
<item*|Coding style>
Systematically use ``const ref'' style parameter passing should both
decrease the size of the binary and accelerate the global efficiency.
<item*|Better caching mechanism>
Optimize performance as a function of cost of recomputation and storage
requirement
<item*|Increased laziness>
The typesetter should be made lazy in a more fundamental way (see
<hlink|upcoming style rewriting tool|#style-rew-sec>).
</description>
<section|Internal C++ utilities>
<subsection|Tree manipulation routines>
<\description>
<item*|Document correction>
<label|doc-correct-routine>Transform a tree into a correct tree for the
current style. This routine should in particular be called before or
after any conversion to an external format.
<item*|Downgrade <TeXmacs> documents>
Downgrade <TeXmacs> documents to those of a previous version. This should
be used in particular in combination with plug-ins: after communication
of the version of <TeXmacs> for which the plug-in was designed, <TeXmacs>
should emulate the behaviour of this, potentially older, version.
</description>
<subsection|Encodings and fonts>
<\description>
<item*|Unicode>
Systematically use Unicode.
<item*|Agglomerated fonts>
Some changes have still to be made in the way font encodings are handled.
This should make it easier to maintain fonts with characters from several
physical fonts, virtual fonts, special characters, etc.
<item*|Determination of logical font>
Currently, the current logical font is determined from a fixed set of
environment variables only. The current typesetting font should rather be
a tree (instead of a string), which is evaluated (so that environment
variables are replaced) and then passed to
<verbatim|find_font(display,tree)>. The current font can then be a joined
font and future fonts might depend on user environment variables (i.e.
colored fonts, using more than one color).
</itemize>
<section|Speed>
<item*|Rubber characters>
In order to speed up the program, we already made the major change that not
the whole document is typeset again when making local changes. However,
several other main optimizations should still be made:
<label|rubber-chars>Implement large brackets and wide delimiters for STIX
fonts.
<\itemize>
<item>Encode the system environment variables; this will globally
accelerate the program. Also, intermediate data during the typesetting
process might be encoded in a more binary way.
Provide standard implementations using vector graphics, which do not
depend on fonts, with many parameters for customizing width, shape, etc.
</description>
<item>The typesetter should be made lazy in a more fundamental way.
</itemize>
<section|<name|Scheme> interface>
<section|Scheme>
<subsection|General>
The <name|Guile>/<scheme> interface should become more robust and well
documented. Several things still need to be done for this:
<\description>
<item*|<name|Scheme> plug-in>
<\itemize>
<item>Implement a system for ``contextual overloading''.
Internally present <name|Guile> as a plug-in, which could later be
replaced by another <name|Scheme> implementation.
<item>Better preservation of locality.
<item*|Unified <TeXmacs> content interface>
<item>Systematic use of closures throughout the code.
<item>A clean interface for manipulating <TeXmacs> content (a unified
interface for both internal <TeXmacs> trees and the associated <scheme>
A clean interface for manipulating <TeXmacs> content (a unified interface
for both internal <TeXmacs> trees and the associated <scheme>
representation).
<item>Documentation.
<item*|Documentation>
Better documentation on how to use the <scheme> extensions.
</description>
<subsection|Coding style>
<\description>
<item*|Preservation of locality>
Replace dispatch tables by contextual overloading where possible (i.e.
<LaTeX> export).
<item*|Closures>
Systematic use of closures throughout the code. In particular, we should
base our implementation of dialogs on closures instead of continuations.
<item*|Naming conventions>
Rename <verbatim|drd-> <math|\<rightarrow\>> <verbatim|logic-> for
routines from kernel/drd.
Appropriate naming convention for routines which operate on markup: when
to use <verbatim|tmconcat->, <verbatim|concat->, <verbatim|concat/>,
<verbatim|tree-concat->, etc., especially for tags like "<verbatim|tree>"
which are also used as data types.
</description>
<section|Typesetter>
<subsection|General>
<\description>
<item*|Eequivalent for <TeX> <verbatim|\\topsep>>
In <TeXmacs>, the <verbatim|\\topsep> always equals 0.75em. It should be
possible to modify this. For symmetry, we might also introduce a ``bottom
sep''.
<item*|Resizing macro expansions>
When attempting to resize a macro application to become smaller than the
``<verbatim|x>'', the invisible markers may have undesirable
side-effects.
<item*|Font parameters>
Separate environment variables for ``typewriter'', ``sans serif'',
``small caps'', ``slant'', etc.
Find rendering font as a function of selected font and language?
<item*|Simplification of page parameters>
Should we still reorganize? It should be easy to access to the page width
and height and some other parameters.
<item*|Origins of boxes>
Boxes should not have origins; its children should have positions
instead.
<item*|Temporarily inccorect markup>
Example: when pressing <shortcut|(remove-structure-upwards)> inside a
<markup|surround> tag, we first remove the two first children of the
surround tag (so that it obtains arity 1) and next remove the tag itself.
The temporarily inccorect <markup|surround> tag of arity 1 may cause
<verbatim|bridge_surround> to crash. Temporary fix: add extra nodes in
the bridge. Better fix: implement an elementary modification
<verbatim|assign_label>, which allows to change the surround tag into
another tag like tuple before performing incorrect operations.
In general: the typesetter should not crash in the case of incorrect edit
trees.
</description>
<subsection|Text>
<\description>
<item*|Introduction of the paragraph tag>
Distinguish between paragraphs and paragraph units.
<item*|Page decorations (headers and footers)>
Should the corresponding environment variables become macros? Also make
the contents editable whenever possible.
<item*|Fine-grained baseline skip>
Associate baseline skip (or ascent and descent) to each individual box in
concatenation. Next compute maximum over each line. Take maximum of
maximum after first line and maximum before second line in order to
obtain final value. Also for other parameters such as baselineskip?
<item*|Precise scope of variables which affect paragraph layout>
The scopes of several such variables is currently a bit ill-defined,
especially when they are modified several times by macros.
<item*|User-defined hyphenations of words>
<item*|Oriental languages>
Cursor movement is extremely slow for oriental languages. Line breaking
could also be further improved.
</description>
<subsection|Mathematics>
<\description>
<item*|Fractions>
Macro for continued fractions, such that right hand sides of fractions
are aligned.
Less vertical spacing in text style between numerator/denominator and
bar.
<item*|Equations>
Left-numbering of equation arrays. Should be possible now using the
extern primitive.
<item*|Operator decorations>
Regard <markup|above>, <markup|below>, <markup|below> and <markup|wide*>
as operator decorations, both for typesetting purposes and for the
standard mathematical grammar.
<item*|Rubber brackets and wide delimiters>
See <hlink|section on fonts|#rubber-chars>.
<item*|Homoglyps>
Mode for showing invisible symbols and distinguishing between other
homoglyps. Also show alternatives for homoglyphs in the <menu|Focus>
menu.
<item*|Missing symbols>
Forall and exists as big operators.
Upright and sans serif mathematical symbols.
</description>
<subsection|Style sheet language>
<\description>
<item*|Style options>
Introduce a mechanism for style options. For instance, style packages in
a given directory might be executed before the actual document style and
document packages.
<item*|Greyed menu entries>
Grey menu entries for parameters which cannot be changed in the style.
For instance, a<nbsp>style might provide a limited number of font base
sizes.
<item*|Cleaner replacement for <markup|drd-props>>
Replace <markup|drd-props> primitive by a primitive inside the macro,
e.g.:
<verbatim| \ \<less\>macro\|a\|b\|\<less\>drd-props\|\<less\>drd-prop\|a\|accessible\<gtr\>\|...\|body\<gtr\>\<gtr\>>
and/or <markup|no-assign> tag for associating drd-properties without
actual assignment.
<item*|Prevent packages to be loaded twice>
Implement a <markup|provide-package> variant of use-package, which does
not (re)load.
Or simply let use-package never reload the same package twice.
<item*|Forms>
Implement forms by letting field tags link to the main form tag.
<item*|Interaction with <scheme>>
Declaration of key-bindings and more complex scheme code in style
packages.
Declaration of style packages and macros from within a <scheme> module.
</description>
<section|Editor>
<subsection|Structured text>
<\description>
<item*|Presentation tags>
Should we provide icons for certain presentation tags and other
environment variables, such as font type and size?
<item*|Titles>
The interface for editing document titles is buggy. In particular, we
cannot remove authors or transform selections into titles. Also selecting
part of the title information is buggy. Finally, the macros for rendering
titles are overly complex.
<item*|Inline and block content>
Automatically turn block content into inline content when appropriate.
<item*|Outward selection>
Maybe use shift-mouse-click for outward selection (besides pointing
inside a hyperlink).
</description>
<subsection|Editing source trees>
<\description>
<item*|Editing macro names>
User-defined macros can be turned into a compound using the backspace
key, builtin macros can't. Why is that? How do I change the name of the
call to a buildin macro? Can I avoid removing it and creating a new one?
If the first argument of a call to a user defined macro contains a
<markup|document> tag, I cannot turn it into a compound any more. Why
that?
By the way, there seems to be no way to manually create or remove
<markup|document> tags.
<item*|Editing meta-information>
Edit the "init" part of a file in source code form.
<item*|Customizable presentation>
Make the presentation of source code more customizable by user macros.
Done for syntactic highlighting, but should also be done for special
rendering of certain primitives and the rendering of tags.
<item*|Primitive for block arguments>
Currently, we may stretch tags. We also need a primitive for stretching
tag arguments.
<item*|Comments>
Tags for short commands inside the program.
<item*|Visual hints>
Display informative flags at places where tags have been stretched or a
modification to the source style has been applied.
</description>
<subsection|Miscellaneous>
<\description>
<item*|``Edit as'' facility>
A facility <menu|Edit as> to convert a selection into any other format
and put the result in an <markup|edit-as> tag for manual editing. When
pressing return, reconvert back into <TeXmacs>.
<item*|Style file assistants>
Assistant for creating your own styles.
Widget for editing simple macros in the preamble without entering
preamble mode.
<item*|Failing <cpp|as_double> and <cpp|as_string> conversions>
When <verbatim|author> tags for the history management get large, then
the <cpp|as_double> and <cpp|as_string> conversions may fail.
<item*|Relaunching <TeXmacs>>
Relaunch <TeXmacs> after change of look and feel.
</description>
<section|Converters>
<\description>
<item*|Quoting>
Implement different routines for quoting and quote/unquote using the
appropriate routine.
<item*|<LaTeX>>
<\description-dash>
<item*|Avoid name-clashes with built-in commands>Importation of <LaTeX>
macros whose names coincide with built-in commands may lead to
incorrect documents (e.g. the point macro in
<verbatim|publs/1998/zeta.tex>). We should probably
<hlink|post-correct|#doc-correct-routine> imported documents.
<item*|Better parsing of verbatim arguments>Some commands, like
<verbatim|documentclass>, <verbatim|cite>, <abbr|etc.> take verbatim
arguments, which should not be parsed in the generic way. The
<verbatim|string_arg> function is a temporary remedy.
</description-dash>
<item*|Postscript>
Use <name|PdfMark> watermarks for <name|Pdf> generation with hyperlinks
and tables of contents.
</description>
<section|Graphics editor>
<subsection|Interface>
<\description>
<item*|General interface>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Explanatory messages on the status bar.
<item>Better ``mouse button layout'': do as much as possible with
left mouse button only and reserve right button for contextual menu.
<item>Fine-grained resizing using keyboard (also allow modification
of grain?).
<item>Resizing using mouse.
<item>Automatic detection of simple types of curves when dragging in
drawing mode.
<item>Automatic detection of simple ornaments (arrows, dots).
<item>Cairo plug-in for nicer looking graphics.
<item>Graphical macros and constraint-based drawings.
<item>Documentation, reference guide (markup specification) and
tutorial.
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
<subsection|Reorganization of <scheme> code>
<\description>
<item*|Clean API for graphical objet and current decorations>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Remove/restore one object (while preserving <math|z>-order).
<item>Remove/restore a selection of objects (while preserving
<math|z>-order).
<item>Specify decorations for current graphical object.
<item>Undo and cancel.
</with>
</itemize>
<tmdoc-copyright|1998--2002|Joris van der Hoeven>
<item*|Clean API for setting/retrieving graphical attributes>
Possible attributes: color, line width, line style, fill color, etc.
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Selecting the value of a given attribute.
<item>Retrieving the value of a given attribute.
<item>Apply attributes to one or more objects.
<item>Retrieve attributes from one (or more) objects.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Clean API for global attributes of the entire graphics>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Set an attribute.
<item>Retrieve an attribute.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Clean API for simple object construction>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Different types of arguments: point, length, content, etc.
<item>Adding an argument to the current object.
<item>Removing an argument from a current object.
<item>Event handlers and how to map mouse buttons to different
actions.
<item>Computation of decorations.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Clean API for groups>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Adding an object / region.
<item>Removing an object / region.
<item>Geometric transformations.
<item>Changing <math|z>-order.
<item>Group / ungroup.
<item>Copy and paste.
<item>Computation of decorations.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Documentation of all APIs>
</description>
<section|Semantic editing tools based on packrat parsing>
<\description>
<item*|Packrat engine>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Implement grammar rules with productions.
<item>Implement content <name|MathML> output.
<item>When making semantic selections, don't select ignored markup at
the border of selections (or only if explicitly selected). For
instance, inside maxima sessions, the
<verbatim|<with|color|red|(%o<math|x>)>> output prefix is current
included when selecting a complete output semantically.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Mathematics>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Automatic correction of formulas <math|\<rightarrow\>> editing
mode based on ``slots''.
<item>Explicit prefix-postfix, prefix-infix and symbol-prefix
operator types for operators such as <math|!>, <math|-> <abbr|resp.>
<math|\<mathd\>>.
<item>Better scheme for entering big operators and large delimiters
as symbols and not binary/ternary constructs.
<item>Above, below, wide and wide* as operator decorations.
<item>Upgrade wide spaces (e.g. <math|\<geqslant\>> <verbatim|1em>)
as separating spaces.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Universal grammar>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Overload <math|.> and <math|\<rightarrow\>> as data access
operators.
<item>Symbols for <math|min>and <math|max> with the appropriate
precedence.
<item>Notations <math|a,b\<in\>X> and <math|i=0,\<ldots\>,n>.
<item>Several precedences for separators in
<math|<around|[|a,b\|c,d\|e,f|]>>.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Programming languages>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Add facility to automatically close partial environments, e.g.
with missing <verbatim|}> or missing statement after <verbatim|if x
then>. Applications: highlighting imcomplete input, automatic
indentation.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Editing>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Generalize use of mathematical focus instead of usual focus.
For instance, the focus bar, tooltips on math symbols, using
<verbatim|semantic_root> instead of <verbatim|innermost>, etc.
<item>Easy way to switch between semantic and non-semantic
selections.
<item>Shortcut for circulating among homoglyphs.
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
<section|Upcoming style rewriting tool><label|style-rew-sec>
<\description>
<item*|Reminders>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Attention to implicitly changed variables, such as
<src-var|the-tags><compound|markup|>,
<src-var|the-label><compound|markup|>, etc., which may cause the
entire document to be retypeset.
<item>Attention to <src-var|base-file-name><compound|markup|>,
<src-var|cur-file-name><compound|markup|>, <src-var|current-part>.
Also put these variables in <verbatim|vars.hpp>.
<item>Replace <markup|arg> primitive by quasi-quoting mechanism. This
seems to be quite necessary: consider
<verbatim|\<less\>assign\|foo\|\<less\>macro\|body\|...\<gtr\>\<gtr\>>
and a document piece <verbatim|\<less\>\\foo\<gtr\> ...
\<less\>/foo\<gtr\>> with a large body. When making changes to the
body; the environment for typesetting the body also changes, because
we need to store the body in the <verbatim|foo> environment argument
variable. For this reason, we implemented an alternative mechanism,
which is enabled using <cpp|#define ALTERNATIVE_MACRO_EXPANSION>.
<item>More systematic usage of symbols instead of strings.
<item>Should <BibTeX> labels really be prefixed by <verbatim|bib->?
<item>Links and multiple views: which view should be selected when
following a hyperlink. More generally: refine criteria for
automatically preferring one locus over another one in presence of
ambiguities.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Auxiliary data>
There is a problem with auxiliary data in hidden markup (eg. labels,
loci, links, indexes).
Analogy: hidden markup <math|\<leftrightsquigarrow\>> loaded file which
is not in a buffer. We might want to associate auxiliary data to tree
nodes instead of files. Notice that there are different types of hidden
structures:
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Contents should <em|not> be evaluated when hidden, but we need
to keep track of auxiliary data. Example: a hidden chapter.
<item>Contents are evaluated but not typeset: auxiliary data may be
kept in macro expander. Example: fold.
<item>Contents are not evaluated, not typeset and no auxiliary data
are attached to the contents. Example: a comment or any piece of
markup which has to be completely ignored.
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
<section|Upcoming markup-based GUI>
<\description>
<item*|Remaining issues>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Attach the action to be applied after popup input to a specific
buffer.
<item>Cleaner implementation of read-only parts in documents.
<item>Cleaner implementation of size computation of widget. Also:
notebooks and folding constructs, which may require to update the
size later on.
<item>Cleaner implementation of widget fields (i.e. the way we
associate data to names).
<item>Don't require the specification of a body for hidden input
fields.
<item>Argument history and browsing suggestions using keyboard.
<item>Destroy call backs associated to a widget when the
corresponding window is closed using another method than
<verbatim|dismiss>. Idea: potentially associate a dismiss routine to
each buffer.
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
<section|Management and administration>
<\description>
<item*|Publicity>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>List actions to be undertaken.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Mirror sites>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>CVS mirror at Savannah and automatic update scheme.
<item>Also search for other mirror sites (increases availability and
visibility on the web).
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
\;
<section|Tutorial or series of introductory articles>
<\description>
<item*|General introduction/quick overview>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Different purposes of TeXmacs.
<item>Writing a simple text.
<item>Style-sheets and writing a simple macro.
<item>Running a computer algebra system.
<item>Inserting an action tag which launches an <verbatim|xterm>.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Writing simple structured texts>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Why are structured documents useful?
<item>How to enter structure into TeXmacs, redundancy of the
interface.
<item>Understanding the visual indications, cursor movement.
<item>Editing the structure (removing structure, improper nesting,
variants, numbering).
<item>Exploiting structure: spell checking, searching.
<item>Reminders about correct typography.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Writing mathematical texts>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Entering math mode, equations, equation arrays.
<item>Simple mathematical formulas, recall cursor movement.
<item>Mathematical symbols, variants.
<item>Semantics of multiplication, function application and other
implicit semantics.
<item>Simple matrices and other tabular environments.
</with>
</itemize>
<item*|Writing simple macros and style-sheets>
<\itemize>
<\with|par-par-sep|0fn>
<item>Rendering of source code, what is source code?
<item>A simple macro.
<item>A simple style package.
<item>Customization of some existing macros.
</with>
</itemize>
</description>
<tmdoc-copyright|1998--2011|Joris van der Hoeven>
<tmdoc-license|Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1