[Bug-AUCTeX] Interactive mode is not really interactive

[Konrad Podczeck]

When, auctex's "Run interactive" is on, the window showing the 
tex-compiler output does not become active, i.e. does not get focus. So 
this window is not ready to receive keyboard input. This is counter to 
the very meaning of "interactive."

When Emacs is customized so that the tex-compiler output appears in its 
own frame and "Run interactive" is on, then the first tex run makes 
this frame active, but from the second run on, the frame showing the 
tex-compiler output does also not become active anymore.

However, with the customization of having the tex-compiler output 
appearing in its own frame, this misbehavior  is only since Emacs CVS 
from about middle of February; before the tex-compiler output frame 
always became active.

The following solution for the problem is due to David Reitter, 
maintainer of the Aquamacs Emacs distribution.



(defun TeX-run-interactive (name command file)
  "Run TeX interactively.
Run command in a buffer (in comint-shell-mode) so that it accepts user
interaction. If you return to the file buffer after the TeX run,
Error parsing on C-x ` should work with a bit of luck."
  (TeX-run-set-command name command)
  (require 'comint)
  (let ((default TeX-command-default)
        (buffer (TeX-process-buffer-name file))
        (process nil)
        (dir (TeX-master-directory))
        (command-buff (current-buffer))
	(sentinel-function TeX-sentinel-default-function)) ; inherit from 
major mode
    (TeX-process-check file)            ; Check that no process is running
    (setq-default TeX-command-buffer command-buff)
    (with-output-to-temp-buffer buffer)
    ;; ensure the window has input focus
    (let ((w (get-buffer-window buffer 'visible)))
      (select-frame-set-input-focus (window-frame w)) ;; set input focus
      (select-window w))
    ;;
    (set-buffer buffer)
    (set (make-local-variable 'TeX-command-buffer) command-buff)
    (setq buffer-read-only nil)
    (if dir (cd dir))
    (insert "Running `" name "' on `" file "' with ``" command "''\n")
    (comint-exec buffer name TeX-shell nil
                 (list TeX-shell-command-option command))
    (comint-mode)
    (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions 
'TeX-interactive-goto-prompt)
    (setq mode-name name)
    (setq TeX-command-default default)
    (setq process (get-buffer-process buffer))
    (if TeX-after-start-process-function
        (funcall TeX-after-start-process-function process))
    (TeX-command-mode-line process)
    (set-process-sentinel process 'TeX-command-sentinel)
    (set-marker (process-mark process) (point-max))
    (setq compilation-in-progress (cons process 
compilation-in-progress))
    (TeX-parse-reset)
    (setq TeX-parse-function 'TeX-parse-TeX)
    ;; use the sentinel-function that the major mode sets, not the 
LaTeX one
    (setq TeX-sentinel-function sentinel-function)))



Cheers

Konrad Podczeck