However, the fact that it's an exit code means your process must complete in order to tell texmate you'd like html output instead.
For ack in project, using an exit code is simply too late - I want to start spitting out results to the user the moment they are available.
Okay, so here goes the question to Allan (TM author), would it be feasible to add a flag to the tmCommand "Delay output window until first output data comes" that will:
(1) If there's no tmCommand window, it won't pop it up until first output data arrives from the command (will never pop it up, when there's no data) (2) If there's already old tmCommand window (matching tmCommand GUID), it won't touch (empty) its contents until first output data arrives the new command
This would greatly sort out the Ack in project interface -> now more blank window with spinning wheel under the Ack dialog, no more empty window on Cancel, etc.
One promising alternative is to use a combination of the tooltip-becomes-html exit code thing, along with using the TextMate.sysem javascript call as a way to actually do your work. Output buffering can be a bit of a pig if you're not careful but it's certainly something to try.
Yeah, but certainly this is somehow dirty way trick :(
Personally, it bugs me when my screen is littered with "windows I forgot to close" - something that happens much more often than wanting to display the results for 2 different search terms (in which case I use a regex and display both results in the same output window).
Yeah, I understand your point, I don't want this to be default behavior, but at least something possible to do for someone like me that prefers it.
Cheers,