Re: [XBoard-devel] readline support/ICS input box

[h.g. muller]

At 22:24 30-11-2010 -0800, Adrian Petrescu wrote:
> Is this open for discussion? I really, really liked the readline
> support (including in OS X), and sorely miss it now that it's gone.
> I'll volunteer to help debug whatever issues plagued the OS X build if
> it helps bring it back.

The point is that the functionality offerered by GNU ReadLine in the
X-term window (local line editing and recalling command history)
is already offered in the ICS Input Box. IMO this solution is superior
to what a perfectly workng ReadLine can offer, as the latter would still
cutter up the window when there is ICS output during the typing of a
line. It would repeat the part of the line you had already typed below
the output, but the partially entered line would still stay above that
output, and pollute the display. The ICS Input Box does not have
that problem.

My long-term aim is to eliminate the use of the X-term console
alltogether, and make the output also go in what is now the ICS
Input Box, equiping the latter with an output text widget, so it
becomes a full-blast ICS Interaction Window, WinBoard style.
I could then also implement the ICS text menu in it, for right-clicks
on that widget.

The problem with the X-term is that it is not a child of the XBoard
widget hierarchy, so that XBoard cannot control its sizing, positioning,
attach callbacks to it, or whatever. At least I would not know how
to do any of that. In a widget spawned by XBoard the whole book
of tricks is available.

I have actually made a start working on this some time ago, and the
result is in the 'chat' branch of the hgm.nubati.net repository.
It worked nicely, except that I could not find a way to colorize the
text on a line-by-line basis in a text widget. This put a stop to
that line of development. The original plan was to, once the
interaction window was working, allow multiple copies of it to
pop up as dedicated chat windows similar to those in WinBoard.