Re: TeX called improperly

Re: TeX called improperly

[Richard Stallman]

It looks like the normal value of tex-start-options-string
consists of TeX commands that start with backslashes: \nonstopmode\input.
You are using it with a value that has the syntax of
typical Unix command line options.  I would have thought that was
the wrong way to use this variable, but since you expected it to
work, maybe you know something I don't.  Perhaps I dont
fully understand the command syntax TeX accepts.

Karl, can you give advice?


From: Steve Throckmorton <steve@doodlebeth.com>
To: rms@gnu.org
CC: steve@doodlebeth.com, bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
In-reply-to: <200204162017.g3GKHwc24346@aztec.santafe.edu> (message from
	Richard Stallman on Tue, 16 Apr 2002 14:17:58 -0600 (MDT))
Subject: Re: TeX called improperly
Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 19:33:38 -0400

   Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 14:17:58 -0600 (MDT)
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   From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
   CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
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       The other problem I had was that emacs was calling tex.exe with the
       option string (tex-start-options-string), which I set within 
       buffer with the Local Variables feature, in quotes ("").  This caused
       the options to be ignored by TeX.

   What value did you use?  What job was it meant to accomplish?


Here is the entire Local Variables section I am using for this file:


%Local Variables:
%mode:tex
%mode:auto-fill
%tex-command:"c:\\texmf\\miktex\\bin\\tex "
%tex-start-options-string:"--output-directory=c:\\steve\\tex --interaction=nonstopmode"
%tex-dvi-view-command:"c:\\texmf\\miktex\\bin\\yap.exe -1"
%End:

The version of TeX I am using accepts optional arguments in format:
--option-name=optionsetting

It (gracefully, I must say) ignores the arguments if they are quoted,
which is how Emacs was delivering them on the command line.

Perhaps I'm not supposed to be including quotes when I specify the
string, but default values are quoted, so I did mine too.


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Re: TeX called improperly

[Karl Berry]

    the command syntax TeX accepts.

The standard Web2c tex and other binaries have accepted a number of
command line options for a while; --help, --version, and others.

Although I've never used miktex, I'm not surprised that it accepts such
options also.

So, the command line to tex can include both regular Unix-style options
and TeX-style stuff such as \nonstopmode.

    It (gracefully, I must say) ignores the arguments if they are quoted,
    which is how Emacs was delivering them on the command line.

I'm surprised that a quoted argument would be ignored completely.  Seems
like it would either be one (very strange) option, or even stranger
filename.  But if that's what miktex does, it presumably knows what it's
doing :).

Re: TeX called improperly

[Richard Stallman]

What do you think is the right solution, the right way to handle
tex-start-options-string?

Re: TeX called improperly

[Karl Berry]

    What do you think is the right solution, the right way to handle
    tex-start-options-string?

Just pass whatever is in the variable to tex?

Re: TeX called improperly

[Karl Berry]

    What do you think is the right solution, the right way to handle
    tex-start-options-string?

To expand a little ...

Looking at the original bug report again, I see the problem was the
quotes, right?  So Emacs should strip off the quotes before sending it
to tex, so the multiple options come through as multiple options.

I'm surprised that this does not happen at a lower level actually, since
I thought all those quotes mean is that the Local Variables: value is a
string constant.

Perhaps Emacs is adding its own quotes back to the command, so that the
local var could be set to a value like "\\nonstopmode\\input foo" and
this would get passed on the command line as '\nonstopmode\input foo'.

Unfortunately that won't work in the presence of multiple options, so
all I can suggest is for Emacs not to be so smart, and just pass the
value it is given.  It'll have to be up to the user to put in the right
number of backslashes (four, I guess).

Or if there is too problematic for compatibility, I guess another
variable could be introduced.  (tex-start-options-no-implicit-quoting)

Hope this helps,
k

Re: TeX called improperly

[Richard Stallman]

	What do you think is the right solution, the right way to handle
	tex-start-options-string?

    Just pass whatever is in the variable to tex?

That won't work.

    Perhaps Emacs is adding its own quotes back to the command, so that the
    local var could be set to a value like "\\nonstopmode\\input foo" and
    this would get passed on the command line as '\nonstopmode\input foo'.

Yes, that is the reason.  That is the default case; if it does not
work, that is a worse problem than we have now.

Maybe we could have two variables, tex-start-options-string
and tex-start-commands, and use the latter for TeX commands
like \nonstopmode.