Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!mikel
From: mikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Matching Parens (was Virtues of LISP Syntax?)
Message-ID: <45188@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 26 Sep 90 19:52:19 GMT
References: <12558@accuvax.nwu.edu> <3474@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 25

In article <3474@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> straz@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Steve Strassmann) writes:
>
>For example, in lisp-mode in many versions of emacs, <tab> indents a
>given line, and <C-M-q> indents a given s-expression. Typing a close
>parenthesis blinks the corresponding open parenthesis. <C-M-f> and
><C-M-b> take you back and forth over a given s-expression so you can
>see its beginning and end.

For this kind of thing I like the EMACS-oid editor in Macintosh Allegro
Common Lisp even better. Like the usual Lisp-mode EMACS, Fred (the
Emacs in MACL) reindents when you type tab. Placing the text insertion
point next to a parenthesis starts the matching paren blinking, and
it just keeps doing it, so not only do you see where it is, you keep
seeing where it is (you don't forget that way; I don't know about
other people, but my short-term memory fails me with reference to this
kind of detail sometimes). By the way, the blinking is done by alternately
making the paren visible and invisible, rather than by blinking a
block cursor or something, so it's not visually obnoxious. Double-clicking
the mouse button while the pointer is next to a paren selects the entire
expression, displaying it in reverse video. Hitting tab then reindents
the selected text.

Little things like this can make a huge difference in the convenience
of a programming environment.
--me