Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!mit-eddie!NMFECC.ARPA!KARNEY%PPC.MFENET
From: KARNEY%PPC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Gnu Emacs wish list for VAX/VMS systems
Message-ID: <881014113206.20600217@NMFECC.ARPA>
Date: 14 Oct 88 18:32:06 GMT
Sender: daemon@eddie.MIT.EDU
Lines: 56

Here's my wish list for Emacs.  I'm on a VAX/VMS system and so some of
these wishes are merely requesting features that everyone else already has.
The latest Gnu newsletter seemed rather to relegate VMS users to a
maintenance-only status.  So I am presenting this to the VMS Gnu Emacs user
community in the hope that some energetic users will implement some of
them.

(1) Dired.  This currently fails because VMS Gnu Emacs can't run the shell
program ls.  This could be implemented via VMS run-time-library routines.

(2) Should use the exact file name as returned by RMS (with translations done
to non-concealed level).  Currently if I have
 $ define foo bar:[snoo]
then Emacs thinks foo:foof and bar:[snoo]foof are two different files.

(3) Know about VMS version numbers.  The version number should be displayed
in the Buffer List.  I should be able to edit something other than the last
version of a file and have Emacs ask me the right questions when I try to
save this file (i.e., should it be saved back to the same version number or
should it use the next version number).

(4) File name completion on directories.

(5) Subprocesses that use PTYs instead of mailboxes (so I can run any
program under Emacs).  This was a part of VMS Gnu Emacs version 17.  It got
lost in the move to version 18.

(6) Editing an open file (e.g., batch log file).  This should be opened in
read-only mode with sharing with a suitable message given to the user.

(7) Etags implemented in Emacs.  This would enable the patterns that define
subprograms to be defined by regular expressions.  This would allow Etags
to be tailored to specific needs easily.

(8) Trap broadcasts, flash them in message area and store them in
*BROADCASTS*.

(9) Emacs doesn't know about overdrafts on disk quota.  (Should let you go
into your overdraft with a warning message.)  (An overdraft is the amount
you are allowed to exceed your disk quota by when writing to a file which
is already open.)

Incidentally, I have a mail-sending and TeX-running interface for VMS Gnu
Emacs which I am willing to share with anyone who wants.  Neither of these
is wonderful because of the imperfect interface to subprocesses in the
present version of Emacs.

    Charles Karney
    Plasma Physics Laboratory   Phone:   +1 609 243 2607
    Princeton University        MFEnet:  Karney@PPC.MFEnet
    PO Box 451                  ARPAnet: Karney%PPC.MFEnet@NMFECC.ARPA
    Princeton, NJ 08543-0451    Bitnet:  Karney%PPC.MFEnet@ANLVMS.Bitnet

CC:
        info-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu
        KARNEY