Once the ICS Input Box because a full-fledged interface to the ICS, I agree that will be a compelling alternative to the terminal solution. Until then, however, using it requires keeping *three* separate windows in the foreground just to conduct a normal ICS session, which can be very difficult to do when multitasking.
Keeping readline, at least until the ICS Chat Box becomes a reality, doesn't really hurt Input Box users. As long as the OS X issues are worked out, what's the harm in keeping readline on for those who want to minimize the number of Xboard-related windows they need to juggle? Cheers! -Adrian On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 12:16 PM, h.g. muller <[email protected]> wrote: > At 22:24 30-11-2010 -0800, Adrian Petrescu wrote: >> >> Is this open for discussion? I really, really liked the readline >> support (including in OS X), and sorely miss it now that it's gone. >> I'll volunteer to help debug whatever issues plagued the OS X build if >> it helps bring it back. > > The point is that the functionality offerered by GNU ReadLine in the > X-term window (local line editing and recalling command history) > is already offered in the ICS Input Box. IMO this solution is superior > to what a perfectly workng ReadLine can offer, as the latter would still > cutter up the window when there is ICS output during the typing of a > line. It would repeat the part of the line you had already typed below > the output, but the partially entered line would still stay above that > output, and pollute the display. The ICS Input Box does not have > that problem. > > My long-term aim is to eliminate the use of the X-term console > alltogether, and make the output also go in what is now the ICS > Input Box, equiping the latter with an output text widget, so it > becomes a full-blast ICS Interaction Window, WinBoard style. > I could then also implement the ICS text menu in it, for right-clicks > on that widget. > > The problem with the X-term is that it is not a child of the XBoard > widget hierarchy, so that XBoard cannot control its sizing, positioning, > attach callbacks to it, or whatever. At least I would not know how > to do any of that. In a widget spawned by XBoard the whole book > of tricks is available. > > I have actually made a start working on this some time ago, and the > result is in the 'chat' branch of the hgm.nubati.net repository. > It worked nicely, except that I could not find a way to colorize the > text on a line-by-line basis in a text widget. This put a stop to > that line of development. The original plan was to, once the > interaction window was working, allow multiple copies of it to > pop up as dedicated chat windows similar to those in WinBoard. > >
