Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a218
From: a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Emacs for the Amiga 1000 ? (MicroEmacs?)
Message-ID: <4407@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 91 20:56:12 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 88

In article <1991Jan11.001849.9549@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) raves about CygnusEd.

     I've been a long-time CygnusEd user (in fact, I'm composing
this message on it) and I thought I'd correct a few technical nits.
It's actually even better than what you say.

>                                                          supports a
>90Kbyte undo buffer, which is far more mistakes than I'd be likely to
>make in a row.

     One way you can overflow it is to cut too large a block of text
from your file for undo to put back.  That 90K can be changed, though,
to any size you like (memory permitting).

>It does multiple windows into multiple files

     Or can open multiple views on one file, or do any combination
of the two.

>                                                 it keeps all but
>the current window shrunk down to a single line and a title bar

     Actually, that's just another option; you can make any window
any size and have them stay that way if you prefer.  Sizing windows
is as easy as dragging the title bar up and down.

>                                                       and it lets
>you use a _66_ line screen, by using a 6 vertical pixel font on an
>interlace screen.

     That font, by the way, is supplied.  Although CygnusEd offers
the option of opening a window on the Workbench screen, it's better
to let it open its own screen.  Then you can do things like switching
into and out of interlace mode on the fly.  For those of you without
flickerFixers, you can choose any combination of the four Workbench
colours; some of them really help reduce the effects of flicker.
Another thing CygnusEd can do with its screen is to change to any
of a number of overscanned widths and heights, again on the fly.
Your choices can be saved for subsequent runs, of course.  On my
flickerFixed 2500/20, I can have it open a 704x472-pixel screen;
that aforementioned 6-pixel font will then display _76_ lines.
CygnusEd can display any fixed-pitch font; once you've shown off
your 76-line screen to your friends, try switching to 24-point
Courier (all with no loss of text, of course).

>You move from window to window on the screen with a keystroke
>(Right Amiga < or > as I remember), and it is just a delight to use.

     You can use right-Amiga-comma or -period too (it doesn't care
whether you're holding the shift key down or not), assuming you
don't just click into the desired window with the mouse.  And
you're right, it really is a delight to use.  Here at work I have
my 1000 connected to a Unix box; if I'm editing something of any
size I bring it across and use CygnusEd rather than using vi.

     A few other things: It has an ARexx interface; it's really
wild to run a little ARexx program and suddenly have the editor
screen pop to the front and start doing all sorts of things
automagically.  The included demo will knock your socks off.
The smooth scrolling is a wonder to behold - if you've moved a
long way by dragging the scroll bar, the text jumps if the
screen can't keep up; when you release the scroll bar the text
decelerates and slides to a stop.  Search and replace are
lightning-fast.  The contents of the cut-and-paste buffer can
be saved to a file or sent to the printer.  You can set execution
priority so it gets along nicely with other jobs.  If you like, you
can have it automatically save your text as often as you wish, and
of course it'll warn you if you try to exit without saving your
latest version.  You can create .info files if you like (of course,
it's fully runnable from the Workbench).  There's even nice little
things like changing the case of the current letter or word,
stripping carriage returns from files that you got from another
system, and even a rot13 function.  I haven't played much with word
wrapping or cutting and pasting columns, but "it's in there."  Most
of these functions are available from the keyboard as well as the
extensive menus.

     Wow, I did start raving, didn't I?

>This is, of course, not a *free* editor, but I think I've been
>paying a little too much of my time for the editor I use now.

     Worth every penny, as far as I'm concerned.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
Anyone who thinks the government doesn't tax the very air we breathe
has never had a SCUBA tank refilled.