[texworks] script parameters

[Jérome Laurens]

Le 30 janv. 2010 à 00:28, Casey P. Johnson a écrit :

> I have posted an updated (much better, I think) version of latexErrors.js
> to the comments under Issue 270. It builds on the one included by default.
> The details are posted there.
> 
> The reason I am writing here is that one of the features that I have
> implemented is a way for pdflatex to pass parameters to the script via the
> \typeout command. In the case of latexErrors.js, this is used to adjust
> which types of errors and warnings should be placed in the list.  This can
> be changed throughout the document as is desired.
> 
> The question I have is, what is the general sentiment about such a
> construction (passing parameters in this way)? Is it useful or just
> feature creep? If it is useful, are there any ideas out there for
> improving the implementation?
> 
> My motivations for beefing up the default script are mostly selfish; I
> want it to work for me. But, if there are changes that can be made that
> make it more interesting for others then I am happy to make them (if I
> can) or to see them made by someone else.
> 
> Casey
> 


Hi,

You suggest to improve the overall TeX user experience, this is always a good idea, but here ,this is not stricto sensu a TeXworks issue.
IMO, it is not a good idea to control the user interface from the tex source.
In general this is considered good practice to clearly separate the tasks, and the tex source should never know anything about latexErrors.js.
Moreover, when sharing documents, using \typeout or \wlog for such a purpose would be considered as a pollution.
Finally, if you decide to change in latexErrors.js the way parameters are read, you will have to edit all the tex sources.

There must be another way to pass parameters from TeXworks to latexErrors.js.

BTW, if you think of a dedicated format of strings in the log file to be parsed by latexErrors.js (and possibly plain, context or so)
you might ask the TeXLive developers for a dedicated primitive in pdftex (and xetex, luatex)
It is something rather easy to implement, the benefits would be great IMO.
For example
\notifylog{TYPE}{COMMENT}

would print to the log something like (to be improved)

TYPE:file:line:COMMENT
end of TYPE

Jérôme