comparison README.multi-tty @ 83230:d8738586aaec

Remove remaining references to updating_frame. * src/dispextern.h (updated_window): Remove comment reference to updating_frame. * src/dispnew.c (update_window): Remove bogus xassert. * src/xterm.c: (x_clear_frame): Update comment. (x_draw_window_cursor): Remove reference to updating_frame. git-archimport-id: [e-mail]--2004/emacs--multi-tty--0--patch-270

83229:b8f2149f9c3d

			-*- coding: utf-8; mode: text; -*-
GOAL
----

The goal of this branch is to implement support for opening multiple,
different tty devices and simultaneous X and tty frames from a single
Emacs session.

Some use cases:
Emacs is notoriously slow at startup, so most people use another
editor or emacsclient for quick editing jobs from the console.
Unfortunately, emacsclient was very awkward to use, because it did not

I'm Károly Lőrentey.  My address: [e-mail].

Comments, bug reports, suggestions and patches are welcome; send them
to [e-mail].

MAILING LISTS
-------------

The multi-tty mailing list (discussion & bug reports):

know if you succeed or fail to use it on other platforms---I'll have a
few tricky test cases for you.

Known problems:

	* Mac, Windows and DOS support is broken, probably doesn't
	  even compile -- this will be solved later.

HOW TO GET THE BRANCH
---------------------

The branch uses GNU Arch (http://www.gnuarch.org) for version control.

	tla register-archive http://mirrors.gnuarch.org/[e-mail]--2004/
	tla get [e-mail]--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>

(I use a recent tla development snapshot, but any of the released
versions of arch will do fine, I think.)  My GPG key id is 0FB27A3F;
it is available from hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net/, or my homepage at
http://lorentey.hu/rolam/gpg.html)

To update your source tree to the latest revision after the first
checkout, simply use the following command:

	tla replay [e-mail]--2004/emacs--multi-tty--0

If you are interested, you can find more information about Arch on
http://wiki.gnuarch.org/.  It's a wonderful source control system, I
highly recommend it.

If you don't have tla, the branch has a homepage from which you can
download conventional patches against Emacs CVS HEAD:

	http://lorentey.hu/project/emacs.html

Creating new frames on the same tty with C-x 5 2 works, and they
behave the same way as in previous Emacs versions.  If you exit emacs,
all terminals should be restored to their previous states.

This is work in progress, and probably full of bugs.  You should
always run emacs from gdb, so that you'll have a live instance to
debug if something goes wrong.  Please send me
([e-mail]) your bug reports.

TIPS & TRICKS
-------------

I think the best way to use the new Emacs is to have it running inside

*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local.

*** The new `initial-window-system' variable contains the
    `window-system' value for the first frame.

THANKS
------

The following is a (sadly incomplete) list of people who have
contributed to the project by testing, submitting patches, bug
reports, and suggestions.  Thanks!

ARISAWA Akihiro <ari at mbf dot ocn dot ne dot jp>
Han Boetes <han at mijncomputer dot nl>
Robert J. Chassell <bob at rattlesnake dot com>
Romain Francoise <romain at orebokech dot com>
Ami Fischman <ami at fischman dot org>
Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel at nomaden dot org>
IRIE Tetsuya <irie at t dot email dot ne dot jp>
Yoshiaki Kasahara <kasahara at nc dot kyushu-u dot ac dot jp>
Jurej Kubelka <Juraj dot Kubelka at email dot cz>
David Lichteblau <david at lichteblau dot com>
Istvan Marko <mi-mtty at kismala dot com>
Ted Morse <morse at ciholas dot com>
Dan Nicolaescu <dann at ics dot uci dot edu>
Gergely Nagy <algernon at debian dot org>
Mark Plaksin <happy at mcplaksin dot org>
Francisco Borges <borges at let dot rug dot nl>
Frank Ruell <stoerte at dreamwarrior dot net>
Dan Waber <dwaber at logolalia dot com>
and many others.

Richard Stallman was kind enough to review an earlier version of my
patches.

CHANGELOG
---------

See arch logs.

(The rest of this file consists of my development notes and as such it
is probably not very interesting for anyone else.)

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

** rif->flush_display_optional (NULL) calls should be replaced by a
   new global function.

** Hunt down display-related functions in frame.el and extend them all
   to accept display ids.

** Have a look at fatal_error_hook.

** Check if we got term-setup-hook right.

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

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

   (This is likely an error in the CVS trunk.)

** Fix set-input-mode for multi-tty.  It's a truly horrible interface;
   what if we'd blow it up into several separate functions (with a
   compatibility definition)?

** Lisp-level stuff that needs to be updated for multi-tty:

	- normal-erase-is-backspace-mode (simple.el)  (rep. by Dan Waber)


** The single-keyboard mode of MULTI_KBOARD is extremely confusing
   sometimes; Emacs does not respond to stimuli from other keyboards.
   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.)  Update:
   After discussions with Richard, this will be resolved by having
   locked displays warn the user to wait, and introducing a complex
   protocol to remotely bail out of single-kboard mode by pressing C-g.

** 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.

   implement.

** Gergely Nagy suggests that C-x # should only kill the current
   frame, not any other emacsclient frame that may have the same file
   opened for editing.  I think I agree with him.

** Miles Bader suggests that C-x C-c on an emacsclient frame should
   only close the frame, not exit the entire Emacs session.  Update:
   see above for a function that does this.  Maybe this should be the
   new default?

** 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.

   device names, this is not possible until struct display becomes
   accessible as a Lisp-level object.

   (Done.)

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

83230:d8738586aaec

			-*- coding: utf-8; mode: text; -*-
GOAL
----

This branch implements support for opening multiple, different tty
devices and simultaneous X and tty frames from a single Emacs session.

Some use cases:
Emacs is notoriously slow at startup, so most people use another
editor or emacsclient for quick editing jobs from the console.
Unfortunately, emacsclient was very awkward to use, because it did not

I'm Károly Lőrentey.  My address: [e-mail].

Comments, bug reports, suggestions and patches are welcome; send them
to [e-mail].

The following is a (sadly incomplete) list of people who have
contributed to the project by testing, submitting patches, bug
reports, and suggestions.  Thanks!

ARISAWA Akihiro <ari at mbf dot ocn dot ne dot jp>
Han Boetes <han at mijncomputer dot nl>
Robert J. Chassell <bob at rattlesnake dot com>
Romain Francoise <romain at orebokech dot com>
Ami Fischman <ami at fischman dot org>
Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel at nomaden dot org>
IRIE Tetsuya <irie at t dot email dot ne dot jp>
Yoshiaki Kasahara <kasahara at nc dot kyushu-u dot ac dot jp>
Jurej Kubelka <Juraj dot Kubelka at email dot cz>
David Lichteblau <david at lichteblau dot com>
Istvan Marko <mi-mtty at kismala dot com>
Ted Morse <morse at ciholas dot com>
Dan Nicolaescu <dann at ics dot uci dot edu>
Gergely Nagy <algernon at debian dot org>
Mark Plaksin <happy at mcplaksin dot org>
Francisco Borges <borges at let dot rug dot nl>
Frank Ruell <stoerte at dreamwarrior dot net>
Dan Waber <dwaber at logolalia dot com>
and many others.

Richard Stallman was kind enough to review an earlier version of my
patches.


MAILING LISTS
-------------

The multi-tty mailing list (discussion & bug reports):

know if you succeed or fail to use it on other platforms---I'll have a
few tricky test cases for you.

Known problems:

        * The single-kboard mode.

	  If your multi-tty Emacs session seems to be frozen, you
	  probably have a recursive editing session or a pending
	  minibuffer prompt (which is a kind of recursive editing) on
	  another display.  To unfreeze your session, switch to that
	  display and complete the recursive edit, for example by
	  pressing C-] (`abort-recursive-edit').

	  I am sorry to say that currently there is no way to break
	  out of this "single-kboard mode" from a frozen display.  If
	  you are unable to switch to the display that locks the
	  others (for example because it is on a remote computer),
	  then you can use emacsclient to break out of all recursive
	  editing sessions:

		emacsclient -e '(top-level)'

	  Note that this (perhaps) unintuitive behaviour is by design.
	  Single-kboard mode is required because of an intrinsic Emacs
	  limitation that is very hard to eliminate.  (This limitation
	  is related to the single-threaded nature of Emacs.)

	  I plan to implement better user notification and support for
	  breaking out of single-kboard mode from locked displays.

	* Mac, Windows and DOS support is broken, doesn't even
  	  compile.  Multiple display support will probably not provide
  	  new Emacs features on these systems, but the multi-tty
  	  branch changed a few low-level interfaces, and the
  	  system-dependent source files need to be adapted
  	  accordingly.  The changes are mostly trivial, so almost
  	  anyone can help, if only by compiling the branch and
  	  reporting the compiler errors.  (It is not worth to do this
  	  yet, though.)


HOW TO GET THE BRANCH
---------------------

The branch uses GNU Arch (http://www.gnuarch.org) for version control.

	tla register-archive http://mirrors.gnuarch.org/[e-mail]--2004/
	tla get [e-mail]--2004/emacs--multi-tty <directory>

(I use a recent tla development snapshot, but any of the released
versions of arch will do fine, I think.)  My GPG key id is 0FB27A3F;
it is available from hkp://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net/, or from my homepage at
http://lorentey.hu/rolam/gpg.html)

Don't worry if the above checkout takes a few minutes to complete;
once you have a source tree, updating it to the latest revision will
be _much_ faster.  Use the following command for the update:

	tla replay

You can find more information about Arch on http://wiki.gnuarch.org/.
It's a wonderful source control system, I highly recommend it.

If you don't have tla, the branch has a homepage from which you can
download conventional patches against Emacs CVS HEAD:

	http://lorentey.hu/project/emacs.html

Creating new frames on the same tty with C-x 5 2 works, and they
behave the same way as in previous Emacs versions.  If you exit emacs,
all terminals should be restored to their previous states.

This is work in progress, and probably full of bugs.  It is a good
idea to run emacs from gdb, so that you'll have a live instance to
debug if something goes wrong.  Please send me your bug reports on our
mailing list: [e-mail]

TIPS & TRICKS
-------------

I think the best way to use the new Emacs is to have it running inside

*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local.

*** The new `initial-window-system' variable contains the
    `window-system' value for the first frame.

CHANGELOG
---------

See arch logs.

(The rest of this file consists of my development notes and as such it
is probably not very interesting for anyone else.)

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

** The single-keyboard mode of MULTI_KBOARD is extremely confusing
   sometimes; Emacs does not respond to stimuli from other keyboards.
   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.

   Update: After discussions with Richard, this will be resolved by
   having locked displays warn the user to wait, and introducing a
   complex protocol to remotely bail out of single-kboard mode by
   pressing C-g.

   Update: Warning the user is not trivial to implement, as Emacs has
   only one echo area.  Ideally the warning should not be displayed on
   the display that is locking the others.  Perhaps the high
   probability of user confusion caused by single_kboard mode deserves
   a special case in the display code.  Alternatively, it might be
   good enough to signal single_kboard mode by changing the modelines
   or some other frame-local display element on the locked out displays.

** normal-erase-is-backspace-mode in simple.el needs to be updated for
   multi-tty (rep. by Dan Waber).

** Hunt down display-related functions in frame.el and extend them all
   to accept display ids.

** rif->flush_display_optional (NULL) calls should be replaced by a
   new global function.

** Have a look at fatal_error_hook.

** Check if we got term-setup-hook right.

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

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

   (This is likely an error in the CVS trunk.)

** Fix set-input-mode for multi-tty.  It's a truly horrible interface;
   what if we'd blow it up into several separate functions (with a
   compatibility definition)?

** 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.

   implement.

** Gergely Nagy suggests that C-x # should only kill the current
   frame, not any other emacsclient frame that may have the same file
   opened for editing.  I think I agree with him.

** 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.

   device names, this is not possible until struct display becomes
   accessible as a Lisp-level object.

   (Done.)

-- Miles Bader suggests that C-x C-c on an emacsclient frame should
   only close the frame, not exit the entire Emacs session.  Update:
   see above for a function that does this.  Maybe this should be the
   new default?  

   (Done.  This is the new default.  No complaints so far.)


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