comparison README.multi-tty @ 83118:7652900ea029

Fixed environment variable handling during terminal initialization. lisp/server.el (server-getenv): New inline function. lisp/term/rxvt.el (rxvt-set-background-mode): Use server-getenv instead of getenv. lisp/term/x-win.el (x-initialize-window-system): Ditto. lisp/term/xterm.el (xterm-rxvt-set-background-mode): Ditto. git-archimport-id: [e-mail]--2004/emacs--multi-tty--0--patch-158

83117:46882e012e30

development infrastructure for the multi-tty branch.)

STATUS
------

The branch is now very stable and almost full-featured. I hope the
major problems were fixed.  (It still needs testing on other
architectures, though.)  Both multiple tty device support and
simultaneous X and tty frame support works fine.  Emacsclient has been
extended to support opening new tty and X frames.  It has been changed
open new Emacs frames by default.

Please let me know if you find any bugs in this branch.

HOW TO COMPILE AND TEST
-----------------------

	* Only tested on my GNU/Linux box, Solaris 8 and FreeBSD.

NEWS
----

For the NEWS file:

** Support for multiple terminal devices has been added.

*** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
    type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.

See arch logs.

THINGS TO DO
------------

** frame-creation-function was removed, which might be a bad idea.
   Think up a compatible solution.

** make-frame does not correctly handle extra parameters in its
   argument:

	(frame-parameter (make-frame (list (cons 'foobar 42))) 'foobar)
		=> nil

   At least a beep or a message would be important, if the single-mode
   is still required to prevent interference.  (Reported by Dan
   Nicolaescu.)  (Update: selecting a region with the mouse enables
   single_kboard under X.  This is very confusing.)

** Change Lisp code not to (getenv "TERM"); use the `tty-type' frame
   parameter or the frame-tty-type function instead.  (M-x tags-search
   "TERM" helps with this.)  Update: Actually, all getenv invocations
   should be checked for multi-tty compatibility, and an interface
   must be implemented to get the remote client's environment.

** The terminal customization files in term/*.el tend to change global
   parameters, which may confuse Emacs with multiple displays.  Change
   them to tweak only frame-local settings, if possible.

** Dan Nicolaescu suggests that -nw should be added as an alias for -t

		":0.0")

	etc.

   See next issue why this is necessary.

** The following needs to be supported:

	$ emacsclient -t
		C-z

   same terminal device; each new emacsclient process should create
   its own display.  As displays are currently identified by their
   device names, this is not possible until struct display becomes
   accessible as a Lisp-level object.

** Add an elaborate mechanism for display-local variables.  (There are
   already a few of these; search for `terminal-local' in the Elisp
   manual.)

** Very strange bug: visible-bell does not work on secondary
   terminals in xterm and konsole.  The screen does flicker a bit,
   but it's so quick it isn't noticable.

** Clean up the frame-local variable system.  I think it's ugly and

** Implement support for starting an interactive Emacs session without
   an initial frame.  (The user would connect to it and open frames
   later, with emacsclient.)

** Fix Mac support (I can't do this myself).  Note that the current
   state of Mac-specific source files in the multi-tty tree are not
   useful; before starting work on Mac support, revert to pristine,
   pre-multi-tty versions.

** Fix W32 support (I can't do this myself).  Note that the current
   state of W32-specific source files in the multi-tty tree are not
   useful; before starting work on W32 support, revert to pristine,
   pre-multi-tty versions.

** Fix DOS support (I can't do this myself).  Note that the current
   state of DOS-specific source files in the multi-tty tree are not
   useful; before starting work on DOS support, revert to pristine,
   pre-multi-tty versions.

** Do a grep on XXX and ?? for more issues.

** Understand Emacs's low-level input system (it's black magic) :-)
   What exactly does interrupt_input do?  I tried to disable it for

   variables to be frame-local, as suggested by Mark Plaksin
   (thanks!).  I think that the redisplay bugs are in fact not bugs,
   but delays caused by single_kboard --> perhaps MULTI_KBOARD should
   be removed.)



;;; arch-tag: 8da1619e-2e79-41a8-9ac9-a0485daad17d

83118:7652900ea029

development infrastructure for the multi-tty branch.)

STATUS
------

The branch is now very stable and almost full-featured.  All of the
major problems have been fixed, only a few minor issues remain.  (It
still needs to be ported to Windows/Mac/DOS, though.)  Both multiple
tty device support and simultaneous X and tty frame support works
fine.  Emacsclient has been extended to support opening new tty and X
frames.  It has been changed open new Emacs frames by default.

The multi-tty branch has been scheduled for inclusion in the next
major release of Emacs (version 22).  I expect the merge into the
development trunk to occur sometime during next year (2005), after the
merge of the Unicode branch.

Please let me know if you find any bugs in this branch.

HOW TO COMPILE AND TEST
-----------------------

	* Only tested on my GNU/Linux box, Solaris 8 and FreeBSD.

NEWS
----

For the NEWS file:  (Needs work)

** Support for multiple terminal devices has been added.

*** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
    type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.

See arch logs.

THINGS TO DO
------------

** make-frame does not correctly handle extra parameters in its
   argument:

	(frame-parameter (make-frame (list (cons 'foobar 42))) 'foobar)
		=> nil

   At least a beep or a message would be important, if the single-mode
   is still required to prevent interference.  (Reported by Dan
   Nicolaescu.)  (Update: selecting a region with the mouse enables
   single_kboard under X.  This is very confusing.)

** The terminal customization files in term/*.el tend to change global
   parameters, which may confuse Emacs with multiple displays.  Change
   them to tweak only frame-local settings, if possible.

** Dan Nicolaescu suggests that -nw should be added as an alias for -t

		":0.0")

	etc.

   See next issue why this is necessary.

   (Update: The consensus on emacs-devel seems to be to do this via
   integer identifiers.  That's fine by me.)

** The following needs to be supported:

	$ emacsclient -t
		C-z

   same terminal device; each new emacsclient process should create
   its own display.  As displays are currently identified by their
   device names, this is not possible until struct display becomes
   accessible as a Lisp-level object.

** Very strange bug: visible-bell does not work on secondary
   terminals in xterm and konsole.  The screen does flicker a bit,
   but it's so quick it isn't noticable.

** Clean up the frame-local variable system.  I think it's ugly and

** Implement support for starting an interactive Emacs session without
   an initial frame.  (The user would connect to it and open frames
   later, with emacsclient.)

** Fix Mac support (I can't do this entirely myself).  Note that the
   current state of Mac-specific source files in the multi-tty tree
   are not useful; before starting work on Mac support, revert to
   pristine, pre-multi-tty versions.

** Fix W32 support (I can't do this entirely myself).  Note that the
   current state of W32-specific source files in the multi-tty tree
   are not useful; before starting work on W32 support, revert to
   pristine, pre-multi-tty versions.

** Fix DOS support (I can't do this entirely myself).  Note that the
   current state of DOS-specific source files in the multi-tty tree
   are not useful; before starting work on DOS support, revert to
   pristine, pre-multi-tty versions.

** Do a grep on XXX and ?? for more issues.

** Understand Emacs's low-level input system (it's black magic) :-)
   What exactly does interrupt_input do?  I tried to disable it for

   variables to be frame-local, as suggested by Mark Plaksin
   (thanks!).  I think that the redisplay bugs are in fact not bugs,
   but delays caused by single_kboard --> perhaps MULTI_KBOARD should
   be removed.)

-- frame-creation-function was removed, which might be a bad idea.
   Think up a compatible solution.

   (It was an internal interface that may be changed when necessary.)

-- Change Lisp code not to (getenv "TERM"); use the `tty-type' frame
   parameter or the frame-tty-type function instead.  (M-x tags-search
   "TERM" helps with this.)  Update: Actually, all getenv invocations
   should be checked for multi-tty compatibility, and an interface
   must be implemented to get the remote client's environment.

   (Done.  Only getenv calls in lisp/term/*.el were changed; other
   calls should be mostly left as they are.)

-- Add an elaborate mechanism for display-local variables.  (There are
   already a few of these; search for `terminal-local' in the Elisp
   manual.)

   (Not needed.  Display-local variables could be emulated by
   frame-local variables.)


;;; arch-tag: 8da1619e-2e79-41a8-9ac9-a0485daad17d