Re: [AUCTeX-devel] Wrap dollars around active region

[Tassilo Horn]

Mosè Giordano <address@hidden> writes:

Hi Mosè,

> I've changed my mind.  The attached patch changes the type of
> `TeX-electric-dollar': from boolean to cons cell.  The car is the
> string to insert before the active region and the cdr is the string to
> insert after the region.  Built-in values are '("$" . "$") and '("\\("
> . "\\)"), in addition to `nil'.  This patch makes
> `TeX-electric-dollar' much more flexible but *breaks compatibility* if
> one has customized the variable.  Just the same for
> `TeX-math-close-single-dollar', same change and same breaking.  Many
> people use \(\) for inline equations, this change would be helpful to
> them. Objections against installing this incompatible patch?  Sorry
> for the inconvenience, ideas come to my mind randomly :-(

I think it's a good change, but since it's incompatible, users should
get some warning message.  That is, `TeX-insert-dollar' should check if
the value is a cons, and if not, issue a warning and treat t as ("$"
. "$").

BTW, I don't see why we need 2 variables.  Shouldn't
`TeX-electric-dollar' with no active region make the behavior you get
with `TeX-math-close-single-dollar' and the same customization.

And since the variable doesn't deal only with $ but is more flexible
(good!), it should probably be renamed (maybe
`TeX-electric-inline-math', and `TeX-insert-inline-math') and aliased
with `define-obsolete-variable-alias' and
`define-obsolete-function-alias'.  I've just checked, and XEmacs 21.4
supports those, too, except for the 3rd and 4th arguments.

Bye,
Tassilo