Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!ziggy!usfvax2!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Tradeoffs Message-ID: <266A92FB.5222@tct.uucp> Date: 4 Jun 90 16:57:31 GMT References: <9494@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <1990Jun3.041822.13548@utzoo.uucp> <27416@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Organization: ComDev/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 29 According to pjg@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (Paul Graham): >now i'd like to ask what would gnu emacs look like if henry wrote it >but he probably wouldn't [...] Though I can't speak for Henry, I would hope never to write anything comparable to GNU Emacs. The day I'm responsible for creating such a huge, monolithic text editor will be the day I hang up my keyboard. GNU Emacs runs counter, not only to "program small" tactics, but to "think small" strategy. It, and most other tools available from the FSF, show no signs of the Software Tools "do one thing well" philosophy. That doesn't make them useless, obviously. It just makes them complex and resource-hungry. I expect that the above statements will attract "Richard Stallman is God, why don't you write something instead of mouthing off" flames. Well, I have written something myself. It's called Deliver. Deliver is (surprise) a mail delivery program. It, like C News, runs on on systems from the 68K and Vax to 16-bit architectures, including the '286 and PDP-11. So I've put my code where my mouth is. Also, instead of creating Yet Another Configuration File Format, I use the Bourne shell as my configuration file reader. Besides being flexible, this tactic keeps down the size and complexity of Deliver. Deliver 2.0 PL9 is available from tut.cis.ohio-state.edu. -- Chip Salzenberg at ComDev/TCT ,