README.multi-tty

   1                         -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
   2 GOAL
   3 ----
   4
   5 The ultimate goal of this branch is to implement support for opening
   6 multiple, different tty devices and simultaneous X and tty frames from
   7 a single Emacs session.
   8
   9 WHO IS DOING IT
  10 ---------------
  11
  12 I'm Károly Lőrentey.  My address: lorentey@elte.hu.
  13
  14 Patches or suggestions are welcome!
  15
  16 Retrieving the branch:
  17
  18         tla register-archive lorentey@elte.hu--2004 http://lorentey.web.elte.hu/arch/2004/
  19         tla get lorentey@elte.hu--2004/emacs--multi-tty--0 <directory>
  20
  21 (I use tla 1.1.)
  22
  23
  24 STATUS
  25 ------
  26
  27 We can create frames on new tty devices, but there are problems with
  28 redisplay.  Input is read from all terminals (NOT via MULTIKBOARD!).
  29 At the moment, the type of the new terminals must be the same as the
  30 initial terminal.  Emacsclient is extended to support opening a new
  31 terminal frame.
  32
  33 To try it out, start up the emacs server (M-x server-start), and then
  34 start emacsclient with
  35
  36         emacsclient -h
  37
  38 If you exit emacs, both terminals are restored to their previous
  39 states.
  40
  41 X, Mac, Windows and DOS support is broken.
  42
  43 NEWS
  44 ----
  45
  46 For the NEWS file:
  47
  48 ** Support for multiple terminal devices has been added.  You can
  49    specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal type
  50    (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
  51
  52 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
  53    frame.
  54
  55 CHANGELOG
  56 ---------
  57
  58 See arch logs.
  59
  60
  61 THINGS THAT ARE DONE
  62 --------------------
  63
  64 -- Introduce a new abstraction for terminal devices.
  65
  66    (Done, see struct tty_output.  The abstraction is not yet
  67    complete.)
  68
  69
  70 -- Change the bootstrap procedure to initialize tty_list.
  71
  72    (Done, but needs review.)
  73
  74
  75 -- Change make-terminal-frame to support specifying another tty.
  76
  77    (Done, new frame parameters: `tty' and `tty-type'.)
  78
  79
  80 -- Implement support for reading from multiple terminals.
  81
  82    (Done, read_avail_input tries to read from each terminal, until one
  83    succeeds.)
  84
  85 -- other-frame should cycle through the frames on the `current'
  86    terminal.
  87
  88    (Done.  A little fragile, but seems to work.)
  89
  90 -- Support different terminal sizes.
  91
  92    (Done, no problem.)
  93
  94 -- Make sure terminal resizes are handled gracefully.  (Could be
  95    problematic.)
  96
  97    (Done.  We don't get SIGWINCH for additional ttys, though.)
  98
  99 -- Extend emacsclient to automatically open a new tty when it connects
 100    to Emacs.
 101
 102    (Done.  It's an ugly hack, needs more work.)
 103
 104 -- Redisplay must refresh the topmost frame on all terminals, not just
 105    the initial terminal.
 106
 107    (Done, but introduced ugly redisplay problems.  Ugh.)
 108
 109
 110 THINGS TO DO
 111 ------------
 112
 113 ** Fix redisplay problems.
 114
 115 ** Make make-terminal-frame look up the tty and tty-type parameters
 116    from the currently selected terminal before the global default.
 117
 118 ** Move optimalization parameters (costs) from union output_data to
 119    struct frame.
 120
 121 ** Provide a way for emacsclient to tell Emacs that the tty has been
 122    resized.
 123
 124 ** Implement terminal deletion, i.e., closing the tty device and
 125    restoring its previous state without exiting Emacs.  This should be
 126    exported to the Lisp interpreter.
 127
 128 ** Implement automatic deletion of terminals, when the last frame on
 129    that terminal is closed.
 130
 131 ** Put all cached terminal escape sequences into struct tty_output.
 132    Currently, they are still stored in global variables, so we don't
 133    really support multiple terminal types.
 134
 135
 136 ** Each keypress should automatically select the frame corresponding
 137    to the terminal that it was coming from.  This means that Emacs
 138    must know from which terminal the last keyboard event came from.
 139    (Multikeyboard support may help with this.)
 140
 141 ** Make struct tty_output available from Lisp.
 142
 143 ** Implement support for starting an interactive Emacs session without
 144    an initial frame.  (The user would connect to it and open frames
 145    later, with emacsclient.)  Not necessary a good idea.
 146
 147 ** Fix X support.
 148
 149 ** Allow simultaneous X and tty frames.
 150
 151 ** Fix Mac support (I can't do this myself).
 152
 153 ** Fix W32 support (I can't do this myself).
 154
 155 ** Fix DOS support (I can't do this myself).
 156
 157
 158
 159 ;;; arch-tag: 8da1619e-2e79-41a8-9ac9-a0485daad17d