[TxMt] Set temporary variables within macro

[Hans-Joerg Bibiko]

On 19 Nov 2007, at 20:29, Richard Blumberg wrote:
>
> I'm trying to build a complicated macro to add a footnote to text  
> selected in
> a document. There are two values that I need to maintain while the  
> macro
> runs, so that those values can be inserted into the proper places  
> within the
> links that the macro creates. The values are CURRENT_FN_NUMBER, a  
> unique id
> I create with the shell date command; and CURRENT_FN_TITLE, which  
> is the
> value of $TM_SELECTED_TEXT when the macro launches.
>
> I'd like to us those values to insert code into the document, e.g.
>
> At the beginning of the current paragraph:
>
> Replace selected text with:  #fn{$CURRENT_FN_NUMBER} $CURRENT_FN_TITLE
>
> At bottom of document, just before "<!--<next footnote -->":
> #{CURRENT_FN_NUMBER} $CURRENT_FN_TITLE
>
> There's more to it than that, but you get the idea. The macro does  
> a lot of
> jumping around within the document, setting and removing bookmarks  
> as it
> goes.
>
> I've set CURRENT_FN_NUMBER and CURRENT_FN_TITLE as project  
> environmental
> variables, but I can't figure out how to set values for those  
> variables when
> the macro executes.
Hmm, I don't see way to do this via macros. Did you think about to  
write a (shell/perl/ruby/etc) command for that problem?
If there are reasons to use macros, well I believe TMTOOLS could do  
that. With TMTOOLS you can execute dynamic generated macros using a  
bash shell. But as I mentioned in an earlier mail, TMTOOLS should  
ONLY be used for 'private scripting'.

Cheers,
--Hans