Re: Guile and GNU TeXmacs

[Neil Jerram]

>>>>> "Joris" == Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden> writes:

    Joris> Hi,

Hi!  And sorry for the lateness of this reply.

    Joris> I use guile as an extension language for GNU TeXmacs with
    Joris> full satisfaction for about one year and a half now.
    Joris> However, in order to get things more robust and standard, I
    Joris> would like some help on the following questions:

    Joris> 1. The module system is not very clear to me and I could
    Joris> not find a short description of how it works in the
    Joris> documentation, or elsewhere on the web.

Have you looked at the reference manual in Guile CVS, or in any of the
recent 1.5.x release candidates?

    Joris>    I am interested in two types of functionality:

    Joris>    a) Defining a module, and telling what are the other
    Joris> modules which are required. I guess I see how to do this by
    Joris> looking at the source code. However, when exactly is a
    Joris> module loaded and what is the visibility/scope of functions
    Joris> inside that module.

(define-module ...) begins a module definition.

The required modules can be specified either using the #:use-module
keyword inside the (define-module ...) expression, or by standalone
(use-modules ...) expressions.

If you use #:use-module or use-modules to import definitions from
another module, the visible definitions will be those that have been
marked for export in that module's source code.  Export-marking is
achieved by the #:export keyword or by (export ...) or (define-public
...) expressions.

(This is oversimplified; we also now have selective and renaming
imports - read the manual for the full picture.)

A module's source code is loaded when a (use-modules ...) expression
naming that module is evaluated.

    Joris>    b) I want to be able to require routines from additional
    Joris> modules on demand. Typically, TeXmacs can be used as an
    Joris> interface to computer algebra systems.  When starting such
    Joris> a system, I might want to load an additional module with
    Joris> routines relevant to that system. However, this module
    Joris> should not be loaded as long as the system is not needed.

There is such a thing as an autoload module, but I don't know how they
work.  I think we also support programmatic module loading
(named-module-use!), which could help you here.

    Joris> 2. I would like to provide documentation for the most
    Joris> important scheme functions provided by TeXmacs.  I guess I
    Joris> should write this documentation in the texinfo format?
    Joris> Would it be possible to add such documentation to the main
    Joris> documentation of guile?  Who would be in charge of doing
    Joris> this?

Me, if anyone.  It's certainly feasible to combine this documentation
wuth the main guile reference manual, but please could you clarify
why you think this would be a useful idea?  If we do combine it, then,
yes, it would have to be in texinfo format.

    Joris>    In fact, the html code generated by texinfo can be
    Joris> rendered pretty well by TeXmacs. I would like to add a
    Joris> 'scheme' entry in the Help menu of TeXmacs, which would
    Joris> look at a suitable location on the web where the guile
    Joris> documentation is available online.  Is there such a
    Joris> location (where the html docs are *exactly* those generated
    Joris> by texinfo; *no* unnecessary markup and adds)?

www.glug.org carries a snapshot of the latest Guile documentation.
After 1.6.0 is released, www.gnu.org should (I hope!) do so as well.

In the current Guile distribution, html doc is built using texi2html,
not `makeinfo --html'.  There was a bit of a discussion a few weeks
ago about which was better, inconclusive IIRC.  I don't know whether
www.glug.org follows the Guile distribution or does its own html
generation.

    Joris> 3. I would be interested in adding the Jacal system as a
    Joris> computer algebra system with an interface to TeXmacs.  Is
    Joris> there someone who can tell me in a detailed way how to get
    Joris> Jacal installed and working in combination with Guile
    Joris> Scheme on a GNU/Linux (or other Unix) system?

See the reference manual, node `JACAL'.  If this is wrong at all,
please let us know so that we can update it.

        Neil