just one cumulative Proof_Context.facts, with uniform retrieval (including PIDE markup, completion etc.);
more thorough background_notes: distribute global notes to all contexts;
# -*- shell-script -*- :mode=shellscript:
#
# Author: Makarius
#
# timestart - setup bash environment for timing.
#
TIMES_RESULT=""
function get_times () {
local TMP="/tmp/get_times$$"
times > "$TMP" # No pipe here!
TIMES_RESULT="$SECONDS $(echo $(cat "$TMP") | perl -pe 's,\d+m\d+\.\d+s \d+m\d+\.\d+s (\d+)m(\d+)\.\d+s +(\d+)m(\d+)\.\d+s, $1 * 60 + $2 + $3 * 60 + $4,e')"
rm -f "$TMP"
}
get_times # sets TIMES_RESULT