Emacs is notoriously slow at startup, so most people use another
editor or emacsclient for quick editing jobs from the console.
Unfortunately, emacsclient was very awkward to use, because it did not
-support opening a new Emacs frame on the current virtual console.
+support opening a new Emacs frame on the current virtual tty.
Now, with multi-tty support, it can do that. (Emacsclient starts up
faster than vi!)
still needs to be ported to Windows/Mac/DOS, though.) Both multiple
tty device support and simultaneous X and tty frame support works
fine. Emacsclient has been extended to support opening new tty and X
-frames. It has been changed open new Emacs frames by default.
+frames. It has been changed to open new Emacs frames by default.
The multi-tty branch has been scheduled for inclusion in the next
major release of Emacs (version 23). I expect the merge into the
devices.
Creating new frames on the same tty with C-x 5 2 (make-frame-command)
-works, and they behave the same way as in previous Emacs versions. If
-you exit emacs, all terminals should be restored to their previous
-states.
+works, and behaves the same way as in previous Emacs versions. If you
+exit emacs, all terminals should be restored to their previous states.
This is work in progress, and probably full of bugs. It is a good
idea to run emacs from gdb, so that you'll have a live instance to
For the NEWS file: (Needs much, much work)
-** Support for multiple terminal devices has been added.
+** Support for multiple terminal devices and simultaneous graphical
+ and tty frames has been added. You can test for the presence of
+ this feature in your Lisp code by testing for the `multi-tty'
+ feature.
+
+*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
+ `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system'
+ value for the first frame.
*** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
-*** You can test for the presence of multiple terminal support by
- testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
+*** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
+ frame on another tty device interactively.
+
+*** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
+ session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
*** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
frame. Its behaviour has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening
files in the currently selected Emacs frame.
-*** A make-frame-on-tty function has been added to make it easier to
- create frames on new terminals.
+*** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
+ `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
*** New functions: frame-tty-name, frame-tty-type, delete-tty,
- terminal-local-value, set-terminal-local-value
+ suspend-tty, resume-tty, terminal-id, terminal-parameters,
+ terminal-parameter, set-terminal-parameter,
+ modify-terminal-parameters, environment, let-environment
- terminal-id, terminal-parameters, terminal-parameter,
- set-terminal-parameter
+*** New variables: local-key-translation-map, local-function-key-map
-*** New variables: global-key-translation-map
-
-*** The keymaps key-translation-map and function-key-map are now
- terminal-local.
-
-** Support for simultaneous graphical and terminal frames has been
- added.
-
-*** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a terminal
- session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
+*** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
+ keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
-*** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local.
-
-*** The new `initial-window-system' variable contains the
- `window-system' value for the first frame.
+*** In addition to the global key-translation-map and
+ function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
+ local-key-translation-map and local-function-key-map variables,
+ and uses them instead of the global keymaps to set up translations
+ and function key sequences relevant to a specific terminal device.
*** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
-*** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
- `save-buffers-kill-frame'.
-
* * *
(The rest of this file consists of my development notes and as such it
THINGS TO DO
------------
+** Trouble: `setenv' doesn't actually set environment variables in the
+ Emacs process. This defeats the purpose of the elaborate
+ `server-with-environment' magic around the `tgetent' call in
+ `init_tty'. D'oh.
+
+** (Possibly) create hooks in struct device for creating frames on a
+ specific terminal, and eliminate the hackish terminal-related frame
+ parameters (display, tty, tty-type).
+
+ make_terminal_frame
+ create_tty_output
+
+** Decide whether to keep the C implementation of terminal parameters,
+ or revert to the previous, purely Lisp code. It turned out that
+ local environments do not need terminal parameters after all.
+
+** Move Fsend_string_to_terminal to term.c, and declare get_named_tty
+ as static, removing it from dispextern.h.
+ Move fatal to emacs.c and declare it somewhere.
+
** Search for `suspend-emacs' references and replace them with
`suspend-frame', if necessary. Ditto for `save-buffers-kill-emacs'
vs. `save-buffers-kill-display'.
changed in CVS, and frame.el in multi-tty has not yet been adapted
for the changes. (It needs to look at
default-frame-background-mode.) (Update: maybe it is fixed now;
- needs testing.)
+ needs testing.) (Note that the byte compiler has this to say about
+ term/rxvt.el:)
+
+ term/rxvt.el:309:17:Warning: assignment to free variable
+ `default-frame-background-mode'
** I think `(set-)terminal-local-value' and the terminal parameter
mechanism should be integrated into a single framework.
+ (Update: `(set-)terminal-local-value' is now eliminated, but the
+ terminal-local variables should still be accessible as terminal
+ parameters. This also applies to `display-name' and similar
+ functions.)
+
** Add the following hooks: after-delete-frame-hook (for server.el,
instead of delete-frame-functions),
after-delete-terminal-functions, after-create-terminal-functions.
frames-on-display-list frames-on-terminal-list
The following functions were introduced in the multi-tty branch, and
- can be renamed without aliases:
+ were renamed without aliases:
- display-controlling-tty-p terminal-controlling-tty-p
+ delete-display delete-terminal
+ display-controlling-tty-p controlling-tty-p
display-list terminal-list
display-live-p terminal-live-p
display-name terminal-name
- display-tty-type terminal-tty-type
- frame-display terminal-of-frame
- delete-display delete-terminal
+ display-tty-type tty-type
+ frame-display frame-terminal
+ selected-display selected-terminal
** The single-keyboard mode of MULTI_KBOARD is extremely confusing
sometimes; Emacs does not respond to stimuli from other keyboards.
(Disabled in patch-450.)
+-- Implement automatic forwarding of client environment variables to
+ forked processes, as discussed on the multi-tty list. Terminal
+ parameters are now accessible in C code, so the biggest obstacle is
+ gone. The `getenv_internal' and `child_setup' functions in
+ callproc.c must be changed to support the following variable:
+
+ terminal-local-environment-variables is a variable defined in ...
+
+ Enable or disable terminal-local environment variables.
+
+ If set to t, `getenv', `setenv' and subprocess creation
+ functions use the environment variables of the emacsclient
+ process that created the selected frame, ignoring
+ `process-environment'.
+
+ If set to nil, Emacs uses `process-environment' and ignores
+ the client environment.
+
+ Otherwise, `terminal-local-environment-variables' should be a
+ list of variable names (represented by Lisp strings) to look
+ up in the client environment. The rest will come from
+ `process-environment'.
+
+ (Implemented in patch-461; `terminal-getenv', `terminal-setenv' and
+ `with-terminal-environment' are now replaced by extensions to
+ `getenv' and `setenv', and the new `local-environment-variables'
+ facility. Yay!)
+
+ (Updated in patch-465 to fix the semantics of let-binding
+ `process-environment'. `process-environment' was changed to
+ override all local/global environment variables, and a new variable
+ `global-environment' was introduced to have `process-environment's
+ old meaning.)
+
+ (Updated in patch-466 to fix the case when two emacsclient sessions
+ share the same terminal, but have different environment. The local
+ environment lists are now stored as frame parameters, so the
+ C-level terminal parameters are not strictly necessary any more.)
+
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