Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!gwspc!cbcsta!n8emr!lwv
From: lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: AMACS vs MicroEmacs
Message-ID: <374@n8emr.UUCP>
Date: 12 Dec 87 21:42:08 GMT
References: <8712112336.AA18794@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: lwv@n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden)
Organization: N8EMR's Ham BBS (HBBS), Columbus,Ohio
Lines: 50


Obviously MicroEmacs doesnt need MY words to defend it, but for the
uninitiated, MicroEmacs is a free editor, written in C, which currently is  
distributed to run on all manner of Unix machines, Amigas, Atari's and
MS-Dos machines.  Someone put together a half hearted port to the Mac,
with only a small portion of the full functionality of the editor, and
made it available about a year ago.  It was one of the cheapest means for
a programmer to get at a 'real' editor (excuse the expression).  This was
based on a 3.8 or earlier version.  MicroEmacs is now at version 3.9e.
The current MicroEmacs as distributed does NOT support the Mac.  This
may show up in 3.9f or later - then again, it may not.  It Supports more
programmable features than ANY editor currently available on the IIgs.  I
dont know much about Mac editors but would guess that the same situation
exists there.  This program allows you to write macros for any function
keys that your terminal / computer has - and you have all the source so
that function key can mean anything that you want it to - for instance
Open-Apple and lower case, OA-Upper case, Option-lower case, Option Upper case
aOpen and Option and control characters, etc. could ALL be function keys on
the IIgs if it were ported to this machine. In environments where it is
supported, one can escape to the shell, run other commands and place the
output in a window (oh, I forgot to mention, quite a large number of windows
and buffers can be open at once), or you can feed the contents of a window
TO a command and put the results in that place.  You can define all sorts
of sophisticated macros using a multi-line macro language.  There are all
sorts of modes built in, such as C mode (making the entry and editing of
C code easier), etc.  All in all, quite an impressive editor.  Since there
are over 10,000 users of this editor (my guesstimate looking at the high
level of activity on usenet about it) there are lots of folks finding fixes
and adding new code.  The author himself posts updates quite often and
incorporates new features as they become popular.

The biggest advantage to having the source code is that, especially in this
case, it is portable enough code that with some work one should be able to
get the program up on most any computer of a decent size.  The executable
is less than 73,000 bytes on a Vax 11/785 running Ultrix 1.2.  It is VEYR
fast coming up.  You can reconfigure all the keys to you liking - make it
look and act like freewriter if you want!

All in all, the only BAD aspect of this program for IIgs owners is that it has
not been ported to the IIgs yet.  Once someone takes that task in hand - and
a fellow I know on CIS says that he is looking into this - then even WE will
be able to get on the band wagon.

Yours for equal time.

-- 
Larry W. Virden	 75046,606 (CIS)
674 Falls Place, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 (614) 864-8817
cbosgd!n8emr!lwv (UUCP) 	cbosgd!n8emr!lwv@PSUVAX1 (BITNET)
We haven't inherited the world from our parents, but borrowed it from our children.