Xref: utzoo comp.unix.cray:203 comp.unix.large:114 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!cedman From: cedman@lynx.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman) Newsgroups: comp.unix.cray,comp.unix.large Subject: Re: "vi" & Supercomputer Performance Message-ID: Date: 11 Oct 90 21:57:36 GMT References: <1990Oct4.050509.11405@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <8144@scolex.sco.COM> Distribution: usa Organization: non serviam Lines: 36 Nntp-Posting-Host: lynx.ps.uci.edu In-reply-to: seanf@sco.COM's message of 11 Oct 90 10:03:04 GMT In article <8144@scolex.sco.COM> seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan) writes: In article boylanr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (ross boylan) writes: >I recall that some documentation from NCSA (Crays under UNICOS) said >that it was OK to run emacs; it didn't degrade system performance. Ah, yes, Crays: machines where a 1-2Mb EMACS process is considered small. It isn't that the emacs didn't degrade performance, it was that it was found that using emacs (or other editors, for that matter) locally on the cray was more efficient in *programmer time* than ftp'ing the file from the cray, editing locally on your workstation, and ftp'ing it back. And, yes, programmer time is still very expensive. It still seems like a terrible squandering of resources to use valueable cray preformance to do such a simple job with low (by cray standards) preformance requirements as editing files and at the same time use your local workstation as dumb terminal. The solution ? Use "ange-ftp" , a free emacs lisp file. It allows you to read and write files on any filesystem reachable via ftp completely transparently. f.e. if I want to edit a file "/tmp/foo" on the cray "y1.sdsc.edu" and use emacs here to do it I simply open a file (by the standard method) and give "/y1.sdsc.edu:/tmp/foo" as a file name. Reading, writing, dir-edit-ing, and even file name completion works just as if the entire cray filesystem was local. Isn't emacs great ? (No, please no editor flamewar. vi, is great,too) Carl Edman Theorectial Physicist,N.:A physicist whose | Send mail existence is postulated, to make the numbers | to balance but who is never actually observed | cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu in the laboratory. | edmanc@uciph0.ps.uci.edu