Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!madrid.mt.cs.cmu.edu!toad From: toad@CS.CMU.EDU (Todd Kaufmann) Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Matching Parens (was Virtues of LISP Syntax?) Summary: Oh no, interface wars Message-ID: Date: 4 Oct 90 19:05:01 GMT References: <12676@accuvax.nwu.edu> Sender: toad@madrid.mt.cs.cmu.edu Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Lines: 53 In-reply-to: lynch@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu's message of 27 Sep 90 18:44:43 GMT As far as interface goes, *I'M* using a Mac where more thought has gone into the interface than went into the whole compiler of most other systems. Well, I think you lose here, and are wrong. I used to be as attached to a lisp-machine-like editor. Unfortunately, all it did was keep me from discovering GNU Emacs. (``Amen, brother!'' ``tell it like it is!'') [A *LONG* time ago I was using SPF on an IBM mainframe. It allowed you to HIDE as many lines as you wanted (without deleting them, mind you) so that you could ignore the sections that you "knew" were right, and line up and concentrate on the rest. The hidden lines would be replaced by a single line with the text "XXXXX lines hidden" in its place. Would love to see this feature on my FRED editor in MACL. Anybody write this yet?] I use this feature in GNU Emacs, for CL and Elisp (although it can work on arbitrary buffers); it's really nice. Also, it has some idea of levels, so you can see one line/per page, open to see top-level comments, defuns, etc. For example, here's what a 200-line file of mine might look like as some point when I'm hacking on it: ;;; -*- Mode: Lisp -*- ;;;% Header ... ;;;% Object definition ... ;;;% Global parameters controlling panner behavior ... ;;;% Draw method for a panner ... ;;;% special proc for a link: ... #| ... |# (defun draw-link-scaled (link x0 y0 tx ty scale) ... ;;;% click action for a panner ... ;;;% Create a panner instance in the current window ... ;;;% add the command to the menu ... Although it could just as easily a 100K file, with an arbitrary amount hiding in the "...". Just as you can move up & down lists, you can move up and levels, and expand and contract on levels or arbitrary regions. Just one more reason...