Re: [Bug-AUCTeX] Interactive mode is not really interactive

[David Reitter]

On 6 Apr 2006, at 08:32, David Kastrup wrote:

> > > 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."
> >
> > Uh, no it isn't.  It is TeX which is started interactively.  The
> > semantics of AUCTeX are not changed.
>
> P.S.: which is not to say that one might think about such a change.
> But it would not be isolated to configurations where a separate frame
> is used for everything and the kitchen sink.

No. The problem Konrad described is not just related to the fact that  
he likes to have separate frames for things, which can be done with  
`special-display-buffer-names' and friends, or, as in his case, very  
thoroughly with `one-buffer-one-frame-mode'.

However, the same issue occurs when you don't use that mode, but  
display the output in a separate window. Even then, input focus is  
not changed. This is because you open the output buffer via `with- 
output-to-temp-buffer', which is defined not to select the target  
window.

In my patch, which is just 3 lines of code and shouldn't need a  
signature from me (even though you can have that if you want), I just  
ensure that the input focus is changed:

    (let ((w (get-buffer-window buffer 'visible)))
      (select-frame-set-input-focus (window-frame w)) ;; set input  
focus
      (select-window w))

Of course one can conceive of other ways to achieve the same result.

> The problem with changing focus to an interactive session is that you
> can no longer start AUCTeX commands without changing the focus back
> again.  So it is probably advisable to only change focus at C-c C-l.
> And even then, making the behavior different in interactive mode might
> be surprising to some.

Well, I mean if you say it's "interactive", then I'd expect that you  
can interact with LaTeX compiler. Having the cursor there is  
something I'd actually expect.

The major mode in this buffer is comint-mode, so I don't know if you  
would want to make C-c ... keys do something from latex-mode.
A compromise here might be to automatically remove the window (i.e.  
bury-buffer or so) as soon as the command that is run has finished.

> We could use C-u C-c C-l for popping up a separate window _and_
> changing focus in general.  And a customization option that makes C-c
> C-l change focus when in interactive mode might also be possible.
> And/or one that will automatically "C-c C-l" when an interactive
> compilation is started.

Is that really necessary?
What use cases are there for interactive mode in a window that hasn't  
input focus?