Re: windows, elisp function to call batch file, shell-command, Whitaker's words--solved

[B. T. Raven]

On 12/2/2016 09:03, Hugh Lawson wrote:
> On Friday, December 2, 2016 at 8:49:19 AM UTC-5, Hugh Lawson wrote:
> > The problem is that William Whitaker's Words program returns an error when I 
> > try to call it with this setup, in Windows 10.  I have a Latin text in a 
> > buffer. I put the cursor on a Latin word, and strike F12.  The elisp function 
> > calls the latin.bat bath file, which calls the words latin dictionary program.  
> > I think something is wrong either with my elisp function or my batch file.
>
> [snip ]
> > Here is the batch file, latin.bat
> >
> > cd c:\WORDS
> > words
>
> I found the problem in my batch file, which I revised as follows:
> @Echo off
> cd c:\WORDS
> words.exe %1

Yes, the batch file needs to be setup to accept argument(s). But you 
don't really need the batch file if you hardcode the path info into the 
elisp function:

(defun wwwd ()
"Lookup Latin word at point with William Whitaker's Words program"
(interactive )
(cd "c:/wwwd") ;; where I unzipped everything
(shell-command (concat "wwwd " (thing-at-point 'sentence))) ;; renamed 
word.exe to wwwd.exe
(cd "c:/mydocu~1")) ;; reset current directory for emacs

(global-set-key (kbd "<f12>") 'wwwd)

To use the 'sentence "thing" instead of the 'word "thing" you might have 
to mess with these settings:

 '(sentence-end "[.?!][]\"')}]*\\($\\| $\\|   \\| \\)[        
]*")
 '(sentence-end-double-space nil)

or else just enter a series of space-separated Latin forms on the same 
line. With the following (all punctuation removed), the programm parsed 
all tokens up to and including the words "bonorum omnium," most of them 
correctly.

Quo usque tandem abutere Catilina, patientia nostra quam diu etiam furor 
iste tuus nos eludet quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia 
Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati nihil urbis vigiliae nihil timor 
populi nihil concursus bonorum omnium nihil hic munitissimus habendi 
senatus locus nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt Patere tua consilia non 
sentis constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam 
non vides

So there is a limit to the number a arguments that the program will 
accept, even though it's written in Ada.

Ed