Re: Can Emacs started with `-nw' option view pdf with pdf-tools?

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 2:41 PM Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 21 Jul 2021 at 08:57, Hongyi Zhao <hongyi.zhao@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Then I run `M-x view-pdf-in-graphical-frame', but this will open a
> > second Emacs GUI instance instead of create a new GUI frame in the
> > original one. See the attachment fore more detailed info.
>
> You are confused about frames, windows and instances. Which is
> understandable, given Emacs’s peculiar terminology and its rare
> ability to have frames of different kinds in a single instance.
>
> You cannot have graphics in a terminal emulator (unless you happen to
> be using a terminal emulator that implements graphics display[1], and
> unless somebody actually writes some Elisp code to utilize this
> terminal capability).
>
> [1]: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/
>
> So you have to create a graphical frame. A frame in Emacs is what is
> called a window in the rest of the desktop applications. What you got
> is a new GUI frame. Both this new frame and what you have in the
> terminal emulator belong to the same Emacs instance; if you do a
> ‘list-buffers’ in both, you will see they operate on the same internal
> state.

Thank you for explaining and clearing up my conceptual confusion.

> To reiterate: Your original window is a terminal emulator. You
> *cannot* have graphics appear right *in* it.

Best,
HY