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doc/devel/interface/interface-intro.en.tm

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<TeXmacs|1.0.3.7>
<style|tmdoc>
<\body>
<tmdoc-title|Introduction>
In this chapter we describe how to interface <TeXmacs> with an extern
application. Such interfaces should be distributed in the form of
<hyper-link|plugins|../plugin/plugins.en.tm>. The plug-in may either
contain the extern application, or provide the ``glue'' between <TeXmacs>
and the application. Usually, interfaces are used interactively in shell
sessions (see <menu|Insert|Session>). But they may also be designed for
background tasks, such as spell checking or typesetting.
The communication between <TeXmacs> and the application takes place using a
customizable input format and the special <em|<TeXmacs> meta-format> for
output from the plug-in. The meta-format enables you to send structured
output to <TeXmacs>, using any common format like <verbatim|verbatim>,
<LaTeX>, <name|Postscript>, <name|HTML,> or <TeXmacs> itself. This is
useful when adding a <TeXmacs> interface to an existing system, since
<LaTeX> or <name|Postscript> output routines are often already implemented.
It will then suffice to put the appropriate markers in order to make a
first interface with <TeXmacs>.
As soon as basic communication between your application and <TeXmacs> is
working, you may improve the interface in many ways. Inside shell sessions,
there is support for prompts, default inputs, tab-completion, mathematical
and multi-line input, <abbr|etc.> In general, your application may take
control of <TeXmacs> and modify the user interface (menus, keyboard,
<abbr|etc.>) or add new <value|scheme> routines to <TeXmacs>. Your
application may even extend the typesetter.
In the directory <verbatim|$TEXMACS_PATH/examples/plugins>, you can find
many examples of simple plug-ins. In the next sections, we will give a more
detailed explanation of the interfacing features of <TeXmacs> on the hand
of these examples. In order to try one of these examples, we recall that
you just have to copy it to either one of the directories
<\verbatim>
\ \ \ \ $TEXMACS_PATH/plugins
\ \ \ \ $TEXMACS_HOME_PATH/plugins
</verbatim>
and run the <verbatim|Makefile> (if there is one).
<tmdoc-copyright|1998--2002|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
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License".>
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