Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!sboisen
From: sboisen@bbn.com (Sean Boisen)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: mode for Lisp structure editing/browsing?
Message-ID: <32795@bbn.COM>
Date: 29 Nov 88 15:09:17 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: sboisen@bbn.com
Lines: 43

Here's yet another mode/code request: at present i spend a lot of time
looking at data in Lisp syntax, and i'm not always concerned about all
the lower-level details. Does anyone possess code or have helpful advice on
how to do something like "abbreviating" the display in a Lisp-smart
way? For example, taking something like

(this
 (is
  (a long and boring example
     (of what i mean))))

and turning it into, say

(this
 (is
  (a long and boring example
     #)))

or

(this
 (is
  #))

By "turning it into", of course, i mean temporarily: i don't want to
actually mangle the data, just ignore some of it (although mangling is
okay if i can automatically unmangle it). selective-display -type
solutions don't cut it because the syntax isn't right (i.e. for it to
really be helpful it needs to know Lisp syntax and behave
accordingly, so i could abbreviate the display of a particular long
and ugly sexp). Any suggestions? Off the top of my head i thought
about some scheme using markers and copying the original sexp
someplace associated with that marker...


........................................
Sean Boisen -- sboisen@bbn.com
BBN Systems and Technologies Corporation, Cambridge MA
Disclaimer: these opinions void where prohibited by lawyers.



Sean