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alphapapa / makem.sh

Makefile-like script for linting and testing Emacs Lisp packages
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Doc: interactive vs. batch #15

Open DamienCassou opened 4 years ago

DamienCassou commented 4 years ago

Hi,

I found this part of --help a bit confusing:

  batch        Run Emacs in batch mode, loading project source and test files
               automatically, with remaining args (after "--") passed to Emacs.
  interactive  Run Emacs interactively, loading project source and test files
               automatically, with remaining args (after "--") passed to Emacs.

Does "interactive" mean that an Emacs window is opened? Is it killed at the end? In batch mode, is Emacs killed automatically at the end or does it stay open?

alphapapa commented 4 years ago

Hi,

"Batch mode" means to run Emacs with --batch, which is described in its man page. It exits Emacs after running the functions and expressions given as arguments.

"Interactive" means the opposite: Emacs is launched normally, so the user can interact with it. This is helpful for testing a package manually in a clean configuration. (FYI, the Emacs frame's title bar is set to something useful, like makem.sh: sbuffer.el (sandbox: .sandbox/26.3)).

It's hard to convey all of this in a concise usage message. :)

DamienCassou commented 4 years ago

You could say that the concepts are the same as those described in Emacs manual and that --batch requires passing additional arguments after -- whereas interactive mode opens a frame.

alphapapa commented 4 years ago

I'll consider that, but I want to keep the --usage information as concise as possible. The user can always experiment to discover what the knobs do. :) Thanks.