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From: matthews@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Dave Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Does MicroEmacs-style programmability exist in GNU Emacs?
Message-ID: <5501@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 14 Jul 88 02:09:43 GMT
Reply-To: matthews@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Dave Matthews)
Organization: Dept. Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 47


I've been happily using MicroEmacs 3.8M (the Mac version) to manipulate some
files, but I'm looking for a bit more horsepower.  From what little I've
seen about GNU Emacs programming, it looks like its purpose is entirely
different from what I've been doing in MicroEmacs -- customizing and
extending the editor itself rather than writing programs to do specific
things to files (more complicated things than keyboard macros can do).  I
don't know exactly how to describe what I want, but here's an example:
------- 
;Execute this file to insert page headers, including page number.
;Header should be two lines long, page number to be appended to first line.
;Put one copy of the header (unnumbered) at the top of the file, copy it into
;the kill buffer, put cursor in the first line, and execute this file.
set $debug "FALSE"
set %Page 1
*NextPage
end-of-line
insert-string %Page
update-screen
beginning-of-line
60 next-line
set %CurrLine $curline            ;Done yet?
end-of-file
!if &equal %CurrLine $curline
	!goto Done
!else                             ;Nope.
	set $curline %CurrLine
	yank
	2 previous-line
	set %Page &add %Page 1
	!goto NextPage
*Done
!return
---------
Sort of like a BASIC made out of Emacs functions and variables.  I see the
function execute-file doesn't even exist in GNU Emacs, so if it will do this
kind of thing at all it must do it in a different way.  Where can I look for
info about programming in GNU?

Related questions:
  Is a MicroEmacs 3.9 for the Mac available, or coming?
  Where can I find out about programming features of version 3.9?

Thanks for any help,
- Dave Matthews
  ARPA:matthews@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu             BITNET:matthews@crnlthry
  USENET:...{cmcl2,shasta,uw-beaver,rochester}!cornell!batcomputer!matthews