[texworks] Script: Questions about the API

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

Am 2010-04-13 10:40, schrieb Paul A Norman:
>>>    6. a) Can I obtain the directory of the executable?
>>>        b) Can I obtain the scripts directory?
>>>
>>>       
>> No. The directory of the executable may be the current directory, though
>> even that is not guaranteed on all platforms. What do you need this for?
>>
>>     
> relocating things stored under there - e.g. help info - you know my
> fixation for doing help file stuff :)   I had noticed that TeXWorks
> obviously knows where the Script folder is.
>   

Yeah, I know your dedication to help files - it's great :).
Regarding relocating stuff, I'm not sure if this is a good idea.
Especially packaged versions of Tw (as they come with *TeX distros, but
also e.g. for Ubuntu) usually have their own particular layout of where
which files go. I think this is quite unpredictable for a script,
especially if it's supposed to run on all systems. So it should be
possible to expose some functions to obtains these directories, but at
the moment I am a bit reluctant to do that.

>>> Jonathan, did you mention a while ago that QT could display an html
>>> browser window?
>>>
>>> If so can QTScript call this and communicate with it through the
>>> browser's object's DOM?
>>>
>>> Then we could design user interaction windows and use them from script.
>>>
>>>       
>> AFAIK, Qt can in principal display HTML (e.g. inside a label, text edit,
>> etc.). This is currently not exposed to the scripts. However, I don't
>> think it would be of much use as there is no easy way to communicate
>> with the html objects. So you could design a nice interface, but you
>> wouldn't get any of the user's input. But I'll have to look into this a
>> little more, maybe there is a way.
>>
>>     
> I had some idea there was some sort of Qt  HTML module mentioned once
> - but I know absolutely nothing about it - found this on a search
> today http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/qtwebkit.html
>   

Hmmm, this sounds very interesting indeed. The only problem is that it
wasn't available in Qt 4.3, which we're also trying to support. But I'll
definitely have to look into this.

>   
>>> do we have any access to the clipboard in QTScript?
>>>
>>>       
>> No, sorry. Are you interested in copy & paste (text?), or in
>> manipulating the available content of the clipboard?
>>     
> Obtaining plain text,
> and setting plain text for user pasting.
>   

Obtaining the clipboard text should be OK - I added it to the list
(http://code.google.com/p/texworks/issues/detail?id=333).
Setting/overriding the content of the clipboard is more problematic,
though. At least I expect the clipboard to contain what I last
copied/cut. I think I would be very confused if I hit paste and got some
text I never copied. But of course this is my personal opinion, so
everyone is welcome to (try to) convince me otherwise ;).

-Stefan