[TxMt] Input Patterns? (an aside on TM's HTML output)

[Eric Hsu]

At 1:24 AM +1000 4/8/05, David Lee wrote:
>>So in a weird way, it has been very freeing to target TM's HTML 
>>output!  Yes, it has its own set of annoyances, but at least I 
>>don't have to check if it looks right in IE or Opera...
>
>I think (?) you were saying you use TM instead of a browser to check 
>your HTML code. I set up the following Command because i couldn't 
>find one 'built-in', in an attempt to mimic your workflow:
>----------------------------
>save: nothing
>command: cat
>input: entire document (or selected text, according to taste)
>output: show as html
>activation: ctrl-alt-cmd + r
>--------------------------
>
>this pops the selection up in a window within TM, rendered as HTML. 
>It works fine.
>
>My question is whether this was a built-in command i missed in the 
>menus, or your own invention ...

Ah, let me (1) answer your question first and then (2) clarify my workflow.

1. Window/Show Web Preview will make you happy.  Indeed, TM has a 
zillion nifty features of which I know about 25%.  Like that recent 
ctrl-space thing was real news to me.

2. I do use TM to preview my HTML as I write, but I use a command to 
HTML Tidy before actually firing it off.  I just checked those 
commands into the svn HTML bundle. Notice that the Tidy command dumps 
errors into its output, so you should use the Tidy Error Display 
command first. Also, it assumes the tidy binary exists and lives at 
~/bin/tidy. You can change that to suit yourself.

But my point about targeting TM's HTML output was in the narrow 
context of writing TM command output. In the actual outside world of 
HTML, I unfortunately preview on the obnoxious array of rendering 
engines even after I validate (IE 5,6,7, I'm looking at you!).

- Eric
-- 
Eric Hsu, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
San Francisco State University
erichsu at math.sfsu.edu
http://math.sfsu.edu/hsu