Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ziggy!usfvax2!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Tradeoffs Message-ID: <267401BF.4148@tct.uucp> Date: 11 Jun 90 20:40:30 GMT References: <27416@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <266A92FB.5222@tct.uucp> Organization: ComDev/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 21 According to jkrueger@dgis.dtic.dla.mil (Jon): >chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) writes: >>GNU Emacs ... shows no signs of the Software Tools "do one thing well" >>philosophy. > >spell checker [..] compile mode [...] piping regions I overgeneralized. Allow me to rephrase my observation: The design of GNU Emacs shows little indication of the Software Tools "do one thing well" philosophy. It is true that various add-ons for Emacs take advantage of existing Unix tools. However, Emacs' pretention, if not to do everything, at least to be an intelligent user interface for everything, belies any claim that Emacs might have made to be a "Software Tool." Emacs is a tool in the same broad sense that sticks and Space Shuttles are tools; but it is not a Software Tool. -- Chip, the new t.b answer man ,