Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!pyramid!hplabs!sdcrdcf!darrelj From: darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Darrel VanBuer) Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: environments Message-ID: <5028@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: 11 Dec 87 18:07:36 GMT References: <5056@sol.ARPA> <338@siemens.UUCP> Reply-To: darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Darrel VanBuer) Organization: Unisys - System Development Group, Santa Monica Lines: 35 In article <338@siemens.UUCP> steve@siemens.UUCP (Steve Clark) writes: >>Personal prejudice: back in the days when I used franz under unix, I hated >>the structure editor. >I cannot comprehend using a tty-based structure editor. If I have to do >Lisp from a tty, I will use Emacs. > >>Brad Miller >>University of Rochester Computer Science Department >>miller@cs.rochester.edu >>allegra!rochester!miller > >Steve Clark, princeton!siemens!steve, steve@siemens.com I have used various interlisp versions for almost 10 years, and certainly agree that the old teletype structure editor is almost never the editor of choice now. On the D-machines I will almost always use Sedit or Dedit (and would not even consider using unix emacs on the source files). Sedit is almost as much better than Dedit as Dedit was than TTYedit (for those outside the Xerox D environment, Sedit combines some of the best of Dedit and an emacs interaction style). I will still occasionally use TTYedit: To make a small change in a very large object (to save substantial screen painting time). To edit circular structures (display editors tend to loop printing) To write programatic transforms (e.g. dialect translation with Transor) Only the last of these might justify learning how to use it. The problem with learning and using the TTYeditor with anything approaching the efficiency of the display based editors is the 60 pages of commands, which if you know them all, means you have a command for almost any conceivable edit, but if you know only a few you have very tedious editing. -- Darrel J. Van Buer, PhD; unisys; 2400 Colorado Ave; Santa Monica, CA 90406 (213)829-7511 x5449 KI6VY darrel@CAM.UNISYS.COM or ...{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4}!sdcrdcf!darrelj