Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!achowe
From: achowe@tiger.waterloo.edu (anthony howe)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Something NEW for a change?
Keywords: novelty
Message-ID: <19066@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 7 Dec 89 12:51:04 GMT
References: <559@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: achowe@tiger.waterloo.edu (anthony howe)
Distribution: comp
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 43

>I never see any discussion about editors other than (clones/versions of)
>vi, emacs and the like. Doesn't anyone do any research on the subject?
>Or is conservatism on the part of the user community (if it was good enough
>for the 70's its good enough for the 90's). Not that I use anything different,
>but in 1981 I saw the Rand Editor on Unix edition 6, and I've seen nothing
>else that is really different (except when your hobby is programming emacs
>to do all kinds of tricks). What about structured text, folding editors
>(never seen one) and the like.

Todd Berkley (trb@stag.uucp) had one nice editor in development that
supported folds and could be switched between vi-like and emac-ish
modes. He was even trying to develop relations between lines of text
and files much like a basic database. I did manage to get the source
to version 0.9e which can be used on Atari ST, IBM PC (eeech), and
unix boxes. Todd has dropped off the net for the last four months
and I haven't tried him by snail mail yet. 

This editor is fairly recent (only 6 months old) but noone talks about
anything else in this group much.

I too I'm working on a personal editor that trys to cross some features
of vi-xedit/kedit-wordperfect into an editor I like. Just the basics so
far as this project is just a fun thing. What I like in an editor is
simple things, small, and bug free. Then when I'm ready for fancy stuff
like macros, scripts, multi-screens, and hand-stands I'll add them in.

Another reason to grow-your-own is for work reasons. Every time I
go to a new place to work they want me to use this or that editor
while I use brand Y. Trying to find a version of an editor for PC,
an Atari, and UNIX that works the same in all environments is not
easy or cheap. Better to have your own that you can take with you.

It would be nice to here about other Personal Editors that one does
not normally here about. Fresh ideas are nice every so often.

>Ge' Weijers                                    Internet/UUCP: ge@cs.kun.nl

-ant

  achowe@tiger.waterloo.edu     | "It is hard to make the world go away
   _     -|-|_   _              |  when it has decided to notice you." 
  (_\ |\| | | | (_) |\| \/      |  - Spock's World
                     ___/       |                        disclaimer...