[pdftex] Proposal for new feature.

[Hans Hagen]

John R. Culleton wrote:
> All forms of TeX including pdftex are inherently command line
> programs. I am trying to write a guide for beginners where they
> can execute e.g., pdftex or texexec by pushing a button on a
> button bar window. Setting up the window is easy in  TCL/Tk. But when the
> pdftex run fails, there is no pdf output. Commands such as
> texexec --batch or pdftex -halt-on-error will still fail to
> produce any output. 
> 
> What I propose is a switch that when set and an error
> occurs insert a \bye command just before the error. That way the
> user would have an output pdf file truncated at the point of the
> error. 
> 
> It is easy of course to just tell the newcomer to use a command
> line and read the messages but a great many people are
> intimidated by the very name of "command line." So I am trying
> to throw a cloak of invisibility over it with a little button
> bar: press this one and get an editor session, press this one
> and create the pdf and press this one and view the pdf. 
> 
> In TCL/Tk one can use the expect-send facility to handle error
> messages but for MSWindows users the expect-send software is not
> free. 

normally batchmode will do what you want

(--batchmode for texexec)

Hans


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