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From: root@ttsi.lonestar.org (System)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: DM-like editor under X11
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.140019.8433@ttsi.lonestar.org>
Date: 26 Apr 91 14:00:19 GMT
References: <41853@netnews.upenn.edu> <512af270.cb12@dabo.citi.umich.edu>
Organization: Tandem Telecommunications Systems Inc. Plano, Tx.
Lines: 36

In article <512af270.cb12@dabo.citi.umich.edu> rees@citi.umich.edu (Jim Rees) writes:
>What I'd like to see more than the DM editor is DM pads.  I've got an xpad
>client written, but it doesn't work exactly right because of limitations in
>the way ptys work.  The xpad client needs to get a notification when the guy
>at the other end of the pty is blocked on a read, so that it can then drain
>all the output and update the boundary between the input and output sides of
>the pad.  I can make this work in Domain/OS by either mucking with the
>innards of ptys or writing my own pty type manager.  But I don't know how to
>do it in general on a vanilla Unix pty.

It seems to me that the easiest way to approach this is through the Epoch
extensions to GNU emacs which enables multiple windows (pads if you will)
to be popped.  If you combine epoch with multishell.el (by Aamod Sane), you 
have the nice ability to pop up shell windows.  Multishell depends upon
cmushell.el which is a whole lot nicer than the default GNU shell mode.  The
only thing left to do would be to write the elisp for DM emulation.  Much
of this effort will simply be a key-mapping-to-existing functions exercise.
Alot will be writing some wrapper routines.  I'd be surprised if someone
hadn't already done this.  I've done a superficial job of mapping the left
keypad and top right row of keys.  It's just a fraction of the DM 
functionality, but heck, now I have all the benefits of emacs at my
disposal which DM can't begin to match.

Another dividend from this approach is that you've now learned an editor
that plays on dumb terminals as well as a fancy X display.  (I'm talking
about emacs and not epoch which is limited to X display.  The two are
identical when it comes to keyboard editing functionality.)  With emacs
on a dumb terminal, you can have multiple shell buffers, etc. etc. etc.

DM is a pretty sleek cat but it wouldn't be the end of the world if it
went away.
-- 
Mark S. Evans                 Tandem Telecommunications Systems Inc.
Phone: 214-516-6201           850 E. Central Parkway
Fax:   214-516-6801           Plano, TX 75074
Mail:  mse@ttsi.lonestar.org