emacs forms input

emacs forms input

[Ilya Shlyakhter]

Is there a way in Emacs Lisp to create a dialog with several fields
(that would work in text mode also),
have the user fill out the dialog, and then get the results?

thanks,

ilya

Re: emacs forms input

[Teemu Likonen]

* 2010-08-03 18:51 (-0400), Ilya Shlyakhter wrote:

> Is there a way in Emacs Lisp to create a dialog with several fields
> (that would work in text mode also), have the user fill out the
> dialog, and then get the results?

It is possible and I'll give you some examples. First a graphical
dialog:

    (x-popup-dialog t '("How about making a choice?"
                        ("Choice1" . value1)
                        ("Choice2" . value2))
                    nil)

Text dialog (a menu actually):

    (let ((tmm-completion-prompt "How about making a choice?\n\n"))
      (tmm-prompt '("" ("" ("Choice1" . value1) ("Choice2" . value2)))))

Now, if you want to abstract the implementation between graphical and
text interface it could be a function like this:

    (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
      (if (display-popup-menus-p)
          (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
        (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
          (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist))))))

Example:

    (my-dialog "How about making a choice?"
               '(("Choice1" . value1)
                 ("Choice2" . value2)))

Re: emacs forms input

[Teemu Likonen]

* 2010-08-04 11:53 (+0300), Teemu Likonen wrote:

> Now, if you want to abstract the implementation between graphical and
> text interface it could be a function like this:
>
>     (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
>       (if (display-popup-menus-p)
>           (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
>         (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
>           (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist))))))

Perhaps I should add that if you use C-g (keyboard-quit) or close the
dialog box using window's close button that causes a quit signal and the
function nor its callers won't return. Here's a new version which will
catch the quit signal and, if that happens, return nil:

    (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
      (condition-case nil
          (if (display-popup-menus-p)
              (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
            (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
              (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist)))))
        (quit nil)))

Re: emacs forms input

[Ilya Shlyakhter]

Thanks, that helps; but I was looking for something more: not simply
choosing a command from a menu,
but displaying a dialog with multiple fields, letting the user fill
some of them, and getting the result --
like displaying an HTML <FORM>.

Basically, I want the user to call an elisp function with many
possible optional arguments.
The standard elisp solution seems to be, "if called with one C-u
prefix, function does this;
if called with C-u C-u, it does that; ..." -- this is unintuitive and
quickly gets hard to remember.
In a GUI program I'd display a dialog box with multiple fields, with
some of them filled-in with
defaults, and let the user change the fields they want.  It seems that
ncurses should support that?
Does it?

thanks,

ilya

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> wrote:
> * 2010-08-04 11:53 (+0300), Teemu Likonen wrote:
>
>> Now, if you want to abstract the implementation between graphical and
>> text interface it could be a function like this:
>>
>>     (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
>>       (if (display-popup-menus-p)
>>           (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
>>         (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
>>           (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist))))))
>
> Perhaps I should add that if you use C-g (keyboard-quit) or close the
> dialog box using window's close button that causes a quit signal and the
> function nor its callers won't return. Here's a new version which will
> catch the quit signal and, if that happens, return nil:
>
>    (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
>      (condition-case nil
>          (if (display-popup-menus-p)
>              (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
>            (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
>              (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist)))))
>        (quit nil)))
>

Re: emacs forms input

[Lennart Borgman]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Ilya Shlyakhter <ilya_shl@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Thanks, that helps; but I was looking for something more: not simply
> choosing a command from a menu,
> but displaying a dialog with multiple fields, letting the user fill
> some of them, and getting the result --
> like displaying an HTML <FORM>.

I know of no such general solution, but I have tried to do something
like that in "M-x search-form" in nXhtml.

Re: emacs forms input

[Ilya Shlyakhter]

Great, thanks a lot -- that was exactly what I was looking for!
So, I guess the Emacs Widget Library at
http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/custom/widget.html
is the answer.
Thanks again!
ilya

p.s. a related question: is there a text-mode menus library,
e.g. something based on the ncurses menus library?
tmm-menubar doesn't let you physically select menu items --
it displays the menu above and you have to choose an item in the
minibuffer.


On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 12:29 PM, Lennart Borgman
<lennart.borgman@gmail.com> wrote:
> nXhtml

Re: emacs forms input

[Tim X]

Ilya Shlyakhter <ilya_shl@alum.mit.edu> writes:

> Thanks, that helps; but I was looking for something more: not simply
> choosing a command from a menu,
> but displaying a dialog with multiple fields, letting the user fill
> some of them, and getting the result --
> like displaying an HTML <FORM>.
>
> Basically, I want the user to call an elisp function with many
> possible optional arguments.
> The standard elisp solution seems to be, "if called with one C-u
> prefix, function does this;
> if called with C-u C-u, it does that; ..." -- this is unintuitive and
> quickly gets hard to remember.
> In a GUI program I'd display a dialog box with multiple fields, with
> some of them filled-in with
> defaults, and let the user change the fields they want.  It seems that
> ncurses should support that?
> Does it?
>
> thanks,
>
> ilya
>
> On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> wrote:
>> * 2010-08-04 11:53 (+0300), Teemu Likonen wrote:
>>
>>> Now, if you want to abstract the implementation between graphical and
>>> text interface it could be a function like this:
>>>
>>>     (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
>>>       (if (display-popup-menus-p)
>>>           (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
>>>         (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
>>>           (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist))))))
>>
>> Perhaps I should add that if you use C-g (keyboard-quit) or close the
>> dialog box using window's close button that causes a quit signal and the
>> function nor its callers won't return. Here's a new version which will
>> catch the quit signal and, if that happens, return nil:
>>
>>    (defun my-dialog (title item-alist)
>>      (condition-case nil
>>          (if (display-popup-menus-p)
>>              (x-popup-dialog t (cons title item-alist) nil)
>>            (let ((tmm-completion-prompt (concat title "\n\n")))
>>              (tmm-prompt (list "" (cons "" item-alist)))))
>>        (quit nil)))
>>
>

What about using emacs' forms? 

tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au

Re: emacs forms input

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 4 Aug 2010 18:29:25 +0200 Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> wrote: 

LB> On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Ilya Shlyakhter <ilya_shl@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> Thanks, that helps; but I was looking for something more: not simply
>> choosing a command from a menu, but displaying a dialog with multiple
>> fields, letting the user fill some of them, and getting the result --
>> like displaying an HTML <FORM>.

LB> I know of no such general solution, but I have tried to do something
LB> like that in "M-x search-form" in nXhtml.

Gnus has assistant.el which is very general and IMHO suitable for data
collection.  It supports all the Emacs widgets, I think.  It's not
Gnus-specific although the intent is to eventually use it to set up Gnus
interactively.

Ted