Re: Textadept with ConTeXt

[Hans Hagen <j.hagen@xs4all.nl>]

On 8/21/2018 10:33 AM, cryo shock wrote:

> You mentioned that before at some point, and I wouldn't argue with that, 
> as you surely know best how to use an editor that helps you with your 
> work. I don't know enough about Lua programming, so it's hard for me to 
> tell whether the realtime console pane is realisable within TA. But I 
> will ask Mitchell on TA mailing list what he thinks about it. I think it 
> would be great if he could make a console pane possible, as I think that 
> there is nothing worse than having to switch between programs because of 
> the lack of features.

I must admit that I'm not looking at more advanced editing as normally 
one uses a small subset of what an editor provides anyway. In that sense 
I have no real reason to switch (apart from cross platform editing).

> One month or so ago Mitchell released Textadept 10 which comes with some 
> API changes. He wrote a Migration Guide from TA9 to 10 which can be 
> found in the appendix of the TA online manual:

Hm, I don't look forward to that. Especially because it's kind of hard 
to intercept error messages (on windows) when tweaking.

> https://foicica.com/textadept/manual.html#Migration.Guides
> 
> So when using the ConTeXt TA package with TA10, TA pops up with many 
> errors and is unusable until one deletes the files again. The files work 
> with TA v9 without a problem though. Still I'd suggest to users who want 
> to use the package to rename the init.lua that comes with CTX and then 
> bind it within their own init.lua with
> 
> require('context_init')      -- exemplary file name
> 
> If anything goes wrong then, users simply have to comment the line with 
> Notepad and TA should work again.

> I am pretty sure that you know that already, but unexperienced readers 
> might want to know that there is a Spell Checking module for TA which 
> can be found under Modules in the TA wiki (it comes with only an english 
> dictionary though):

I don't now as I don't follow discussions (I'm only on a few context 
related mailing lists). And we need checking for more than english (as 
well as our own lists) + a bit more subtle indication of issues.

> True indeed. I like your config settings when it comes to highlighting 
> etc. Also they come with a lot of keywords. That's a big plus as well. 
> But since the settings change a lot in TA, for example tabulation width, 
> they are pretty unfriendly to non-programmers. For example I tried to 
> change the behaviour of TA9 to wrap lines when a CTX file is loaded. I 
> don't remember in which file I changed the setting, but it didn't make a 
> difference. Lines didn't wrap, so I always had to change it manually. In 
> the same file I changed tab width, this change on the other hand worked. 
> And there comes the next tripping stone. The CTX settings come within 
> many files with a strict hierarchy, so that beginners will have a hard 
> time to achieve changes. The changes are overwhelming really, but it's 
> worth getting used to them.
> So please don't get me wrong. I am thankful that CTX comes with settings 
> for TA at all. It's ofc better than nothing.

Hm, I never wrap (i.e. I have my sources wrapped already) so I can't 
comment on that.

> I just think that Lua makes it worthwhile for users to change settings 
> by themselves, so they know how TA works in it's core. I'd love to add, 
> that right now I am using one skin file, one custom CTX lexer (mod of 
> the original TA lexer), a snippets file and two init.luas of which one I 
> only load on my tablet to add some basic functionality to it's digital 
> keyboard (which wasn't necessary in SciTE btw.) I think it looks great 
> so far, although it surely could use some adjustments.
> TAlexed.jpg

All a matter of taste I guess. I mostly ship the lexers because they are 
sort of a reference for how i expect files to be highlighted. Also, the 
same highlighting can be used in typeset form. But every user has 
her/his own preference and "which is the best editor debates" are not 
something I'm interested in.

> And I really miss your snippets amongst some other small things, but the 
> longer one tries, the further he comes with adjusting TA to his likings.

I never use snippets (assuming they are what i think they are) because i 
can't remember shortcuts and keying in the few commands needed for 
structure can (in my case) be neglected compared to keying in content

> Maybe in the future you'll have on horse that you can fully rely on. I 
> wish it'd be TA IMHO. :)

Too much a moving (upward imcompatible) target I fear. I can't risk that 
for workflows where authors have to 'just install and run'.

> Just wanted to add my ideas to yours. Thanks for CTX, the TA settings 
> and for reading this mail.
No problem.

(Maybe you can make a list of relevant differnces between TA 9 and 10 
because otherwise I need a new stack of cd's to motivate me get me 
through the trial and error process (due to lack of lua console output).)

Hans

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