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From: eddy <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 94 22:19:06 BST
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Subject: Re: xdvik: missing its `File' button

[ Previously sent to [e-mail], [e-mail], kb@cs
  and copied to tex-k@cs, [e-mail]
  but it bounced; rmail replied to edu.umb.cs by mistake for cs.umb.edu ]^;

bauer> In case you don't know, the selfile widget is ...
jp> ... look through the Makefile.in for the string "SELFILE" ...
kb> Maybe you want to compile with -DSELFILE? See xdvik/INSTALL
Ignorance of what this means was the entire problem -- I'd seen the documents
refer to this funny word `selfile' but hadn't twigged to the fact that it meant
`add a button enabling the user to select a file'.  Dim of me.  Sadly, it turns
out that on using it I trip over the wchar_t problems that the documentation
warns about.  Having solved the problem without selfile, I think I'll stick with
the patch I built yesterday.  Less tidy but less hassle (and anyway I get a buzz
out of using my own software).

jp> Our users are a weird lot.
I don't see this as weird.  The functionality is essential if I'm to start up
xdvi from the menu on my background (`root') window, which is (after all) one of
the things that the WIMP idiom is all about.  That means being able to specify
the file-name on which to act _after_ initiation.  I used to do this by having a
really dim little xdvi file (the TeX equivalent of `hello world') on which the
menu initiated it, then changing file once started.  Indeed, the ideal form for
xdvi would, if given no file on which to act (Usage message at present), make
enquiries (via the SelFile stuff) as to the file on which to act.

It's an ill wind blows no good; the script I put together to get round the
problem is fairly straightforward (now that I've worked out how to do it) and
reasonably versatile.  I lack xprompt, so I've done it with xmessage instead.
My menu entry now invokes
    GetFileDo 'xdvi which file ?' xdvi
which is hardly difficult, even if xmessage's display is mildly sub-optimal.
This is not as good a solution as getting xdvi to do the job but it does have
the advantage that I'm not going to have to change it every time xdvi moves on
to a new version :-}

Rough spec for GetFileDo:
Usage: GetFileDo 'message text' command -opt-args-expecting-file
interacts with the user to select a file, then executes
    command -opt-args-expecting-file file
for the selected file.

If you want it, just ask ;-)
Thanks variously for the almost useful information,

    Eddy.