[tex-live] interactive output filenames

[Taco Hoekwater]

Hi all,

Here is a proposal for a change to TeX's defailt behaviour. What are the opinions
on the following?

On the NTG-pdftex list, Hans Hagen asked the following:

> Subject: [NTG-pdftex] output file in pdftex
> 
> when the pdf file cannot be written, pdftex asks for a filename; is it 
> possible to replace en empty name (one hits return after closing the 
> file in acroread for instance) by the 'normal' one? Now er can get funny 
> names like .pdf and such.

I created a 3-line patch (attached) to do this. It saves the 'current name'
before calling prompt_input () and restores that value when the net 
result of prompt_input() is empty.

However, this changes all cases where tex explicitly asks for a file name on the 
terminal, not just the one for pdf file. I think this is ok, because similar 'null file' 
problems appear in all cases of the keypress "<return>". 

Martin Schroeder, and later Olaf, responded :
> 
Martin> > This seems like a case for Olaf, as pdfTeX currently doesn't
Martin> > change the routine.
> 
Olaf> I'd like to see more opinions on this.  Please propose on the tex-live list.



-- 
groeten,

Taco
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