Ralph Boland wrote:
> I intend to modify the Squeak balloon system to support direct
> access to the detailed information in the Lyx document
> (by the user putting the mouse cursor over the GUI object while
> pressing the shift key).
> The user would then see a window containing the information on the
> GUI object where the window would be owned by a running Lyx program
> on the entire document. For users the lyx document would be in read
> only mode so they could not modify the document.
> (Really the users should see a postscript or pdf file but that is a
> separate problem.)
> For developers the Lyx document
> would be modifyable making editing the Lyx document really easy.
Hi, Ralph.
This method of communication with LyX has has been used successfully
by João Assirati to implement his inverse-DVI search facilities.
(Click on a DVI document in xdvi or kdvi and the LyX page goes to the
same place.) João communicated with LyX through a unix socket but you
could do the same using unix FIFOs (named pipes) if you prefer. All
you'll need to do is post messages to LyX of the form
reference-goto cap:mercer etal, ventilatory units
in LyX 1.3 and
label-goto cap:mercer etal, ventilatory units
in LyX 1.4
where "cap:mercer etal, ventilatory units" is the contents of a label
inset (Insert->Label) in the LyX document.
(You can do this from within LyX too by hitting Alt-x to activate the
minibuffer at the bottom of the LyX screen and inputting the command
there.)
> Alas, I need help on the Lyx side.
> Ideally, when the user asks for documentation of a GUI object to be
> displayed
> my application would open a (Squeak) window showing the Lyx
> document with the cursor at the point in the document containing the
> description of the GUI object.
> I think this is too difficult so a simpler solution would be for my
> application to call Lyx to open the document when the application
> starts but have Lyx not open its window.
Interesting; I wonder if we could add an LFUN to minimize and restore
the LyX screen?
> My application would then need to send messages to Lyx telling it to
> open its window displaying the text at particular points in the
> document and also messages to close the Lyx window (but not
> terminate). Finally, there would also be a "shut down Lyx" message
> sent when my application closes.
lyx-quit
in both LyX 1.3 and LyX 1.4.
I've never tried to play with João's unix socket interface, but the
named pipes work beautifully under linux. My LyX support directory
here is $HOME/.lyx-1.3.x and I have my LyX pipes set up from the
Edit->Preferences dialog, Paths pane, "LyXServer pipe" widget as
/home/aleem/.lyx-1.3.x/lyxpipe
Looking in this directoy once LyX 1.3 is up and running:
$ (cd ~/.lyx-1.3.x && ls -l lyxpipe*)
prw------- 1 aleem aleem 0 Sep 23 12:00 lyxpipe.in
prw------- 1 aleem aleem 0 Sep 23 12:00 lyxpipe.out
Communication with LyX through these pipes has a simple syntax. Fire
up LyX as
$ lyx -dbg lyxserver
so that diagnostic messages are printed to the console.
Thereafter tell LyX you're communicating with it:
$ echo "LYXSRV:ANGUS:hello" > ~/.lyx-1.3.x/lyxpipe.in
where ANGUS is the name identifying the client, resulting in these
diagnostic messages being printed to LyX's parent console:
LyXComm: status:19, read_buffer_:, cmd:LYXSRV:ANGUS:hello
LyXServer: Received: 'LYXSRV:ANGUS:hello'
LyXServer: Client: 'ANGUS' Command: 'hello' Argument: ''
LyXServer: Greeting ANGUS
LyXComm: Sending 'LYXSRV:ANGUS:hello
'
LyXComm: Closing connection
LyXComm: Opening connection
LyXComm: Connection established
Similarly, tell LyX you're ending communication with:
$ echo "LYXSRV:ANGUS:bye" > ~/.lyx-1.3.x/lyxpipe.in
Once you've opened the communication pathway you can post individual
"LFUN" commands as:
$ echo "LYXCMD:ANGUS:reference-goto:cap:mercer etal, ventilatory
units" > ~/.lyx-1.3.x/lyxpipe.in
Note the colon between the LFUN "reference-goto" and its argumnet
"cap:mercer etal, ventilatory units", resulting in these diagnostic
messages being printed to LyX's parent console:
LyXComm: status:63, read_buffer_:, cmd:LYXCMD:ANGUS:reference-goto
cap:mercer etal, ventilatory units
LyXServer: Received: 'LYXCMD:ANGUS:reference-goto cap:mercer etal,
ventilatory units'
LyXServer: Client: 'ANGUS' Command: 'reference-goto cap' Argument:
'mercer etal, ventilatory units'
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:spectral$ LyXComm: Closing connection
LyXComm: Opening connection
LyXComm: Connection established
Moreover, and more importantly :), LyX goes to the right place in the
document.
Finally:
$ echo "LYXCMD:ANGUS:lyx-quit" > ~/.lyx-1.3.x/lyxpipe.in
LyXComm: status:22, read_buffer_:, cmd:LYXCMD:ANGUS:lyx-quit
LyXServer: Received: 'LYXCMD:ANGUS:lyx-quit'
LyXServer: Client: 'ANGUS' Command: 'lyx-quit' Argument: ''
TextCache: BufferView::buffer
LyXComm: Sending 'LYXSRV:ANGUS:bye
'
LyXComm: Closing connection
and LyX exits.
You'll find various play tools to communicate with LyX programatically
in the development/lyxserver directory.
HTH,
--
Angus
