Re: comint.el: EMACS environment variable

[Stefan Monnier]

>     What about the EMACS variable in term mode (the one invoked by M-x
>     term RET)?  Currently, the variable is set to the emacs version, like

>       $ echo $EMACS
>       22.0.90.1 (term:0.96)

> term should set INSIDE_EMACS as well.

I believe it's important to distinguish term from comint: the reason why
external programs sometimes want to check is EMACS=t (or now INSIDE_EMACS=t)
is because they need to adjust to the peculiar way comint interacts with
its inferior process: on the one side it's interactive, but on the other it
sends whole commands at a time (the inferior process doesn't get to see
keystrokes).
OTOH term.el interacts with its inferior processes pretty much like xterm or
any other terminal emulator would.

So I think setting EMACS to t in comint and to something different (namely
<version>) in term was no mistake.


        Stefan