RE: [Axiom-developer] Re: [build Axiom] updated Windows buildinstructions

[Page, Bill]

Ralf,

On Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:19 AM you asked:
> ... 
> is it possible with axiom to say "draw(...)" and then save 
> the generated picture as a .ps file or a .png without manual
> interaction? I basically want
> 
>    echo "draw(...)" | axiom > picture.ps
> 
> The reason is that in book.pamphlet there appear via
> 
> \spadcommand{draw(...)}
> 
> the commands that produce the pictures given in the book. 
> With a little rewriting that could be automated and these
> .ps files in src/doc/ps could go away. Note that we should
> then also be able to produce higher resulution pictures
> (if Axiom allows it).
>

Yes, all you need is to be using a machine that has X11
installed. his is possible even on a machine that doesn't
have a graphics adapter (such as the axiom-developer.org
server) by using a virtual frame buffer driver.

See "Extensions to MathAction" at

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/address@hidden

And these related pages:

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/SandBoxXvfbRun

http://wiki.axiom-developer.org/AxiomGraphics

I have tried this while connected via ssh to axiom-developer
server and I am able to create a postscript graphic which
I can then download. My intention is to use this technique
to add Axiom graphics to the wiki pages.

I have verified that I can run the 'axiom -gr -noht' script
inside a Xvfb shell and create postscript files in this way,
but there is a complication due to the interaction between
sman and AXIOMsys that prevent the usual method of communication
via unix pipes from working. The solution is to use the lower
level pty interface to send commands and receive output from
'axiom -gr -noht'. I learned how to do this properly in Python
using a package called 'Pexpect' from reading the code that
does this in Sage. But I haven't had enough extra time available
to contine work on this.

Regards,
Bill Page.