Re: [STUMP] manual addition part 2: commands and types

[David Bjergaard]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the documentation work!  Response inline:

Eric Abrahamsen <address@hidden> writes:

> Okay, here's the next new bit for the manual: Chapter 3 on commands and
> custom types. This was pretty interesting to research. I'll leave it
> here for a week or so for comments, then create a pull request. The docs
> as I've written them depend on the last two patches I sent to the list
> -- if there's a problem with those, it would be easy to adjust back.
Sounds good, I'm pretty sure I merged your changes into the master
branch a few days ago, I'm referring to:
https://github.com/stumpwm/stumpwm/pull/80

>
> TL;DR: I have a couple of outstanding questions -- if anyone who's done
> command spelunking has any experience to share, that would be great.
>
> 1. Command arguments are given as strings, and most types do a good job
> of parsing strings into whatever vlaue they actually need. I can't see
> how :key and :key-seq can parse multiple keypresses, though. What I mean
> is, if :key-seq prompts for a value, you can enter it fine in the input
> window. But if you try to pass it as part of the argument line, I can
> make eg "C-t" work, but not "C-t n" (or "C-tn" or "C-t\n" or...). It's
> not that big a deal, but if there's a string notation that would allow
> more complex keypresses to be parsed, I'd like to know.
If I'm following your explanation you want to be able to write a
key-sequence string that corresponds to the set of keys that have to be
struck to execute a command?  

The way it works now is that you bind a key to another keymap, and that
keymap defines another set of commands (including the possibility of
another keymap :)) The upshot is that you can chain together an
arbitrary sequence of keymaps to make any key-sequence imaginable ("C-t o
a d" is possible).  The downside is, as you note, that you can't parse
an arbitrary string into that sequence, ie:
(define-key *top-map* (kbd "o a d") "exec foo") 
doesn't work. 

>
> 2. Command names can be given as a list as well as a symbol. If a list,
> the first element is used as the command name. Looking at existing code
> gives the impression that the second element is meant to be some sort of
> method dispatch mechanism, but doesn't actually appear to be implemented
> at the moment. Does anyone know if this actually does anything now?
I'd have to dig to help figure this out, so I'll defer this for the
weekend (if I have time).
>
> 3. The `colon' command is bound to the semicolon, not the colon. Just
> saying.
I'm open to renaming if the resulting changes touch a reasonably small
subset of the code... I think this is a holdover from ratpoison (though
I could be wrong).  I always think of it as "C-t ;"-> execute stumpwm
command, "C-t :"-> execute lisp-form on the lisp hosting stumpwm 
where you have to hold an extra key (shift) to get to the higher level
abstraction (lisp vs stumpwm itself).  

>
> Thanks!
> Eric
>
I'll read over the manual content soon and send more detailed comments.

Thanks for all your hard work!

    Dave