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From: rlk@think.COM (Robert Krawitz)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Monolithic vs Modular (was Re: Free Software Foundation (was: Re:))
Message-ID: <8579@think.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Sep-87 09:14:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: think.8579
Posted: Mon Sep 21 09:14:32 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Sep-87 01:50:26 EDT
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: rlk@THINK.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 38

In article <2954@psuvax1.psu.edu> schwartz@gondor.psu.edu (Scott E. Schwartz) writes:
]Ah!  The truth surfaces.  It's not emacs per se that you love: it is the
]enhanced user interface.  Now if you had a Sun rather than a vt200
]or something connected to a vax things would be less clear.  If you had a 
]"fully featured environment" in that case, I would call it 
]Suntools, or X Windows, or NeWS, and I would want my editors, debuggers, 
]etc to be paragons of efficient software toolhood.    

Quite the contrary.  I've used emacs under X right from the start
(when Yakim Martillo hacked it in the first place, which was almost 2
years ago), and I must say that I find the paradigm of "Start emacs
once and forget about it" even more useful on a VAXstation{100,2} or
Sun than on a terminal.  The emacs server (OK, that's really an even
smaller, faster editor than ed) lets me conveniently edit, for
example, news (that's how I'm posting this article).
						       
						       My experience has
]been that launcing a massive emacs is just much more trouble than
]opening several windows in which to use small, fast tools like 
]"more" or even "vi" (compared to emacs).  

Well, OK, I do use less, but many people use shell buffers when
running under X and so avoid more.  Vi just isn't powerful enough (no
rmail, no extension language).
					   
					   Yes, individually none
]of them come close to the power of emacs, but they dont need to
]since with the proper environment around them (i.e. a good window
]system) they all mesh together in a way that gives you more overall
]than simply the sum of the parts.  

Well, emacs is a much bigger win under a window system, I'll agree...

The small tools, however, are not powerful enough to serve as a full
environment.  MH, for example, is a collection of tools, but it's very
difficult (and slow!) to use.

Robert^Z