Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!mailrus!ulowell!tegra!vail
From: vail@tegra.UUCP (Johnathan Vail)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: MicroEMACS
Message-ID: <367@atlas.tegra.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 89 17:10:34 GMT
References: <14312@srcsip.UUCP> <1436@cps3xx.UUCP>
Organization: Tegra, Inc., Billerica, MA
Lines: 31
In-reply-to: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP's message of 5 Jan 89 14:43:48 GMT

~in article <14312@srcsip.UUCP>, rogers@orion.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Brynn Rogers) says:
~> Summary: how do I get to use the alt key for the meta key
~> References:
~> 
~> I have downloaded MicroEMACS ver 3.9 from the simtel archive,
~> but It makes me hit ESC then X for M-X.  
~> I would much rather hit the ALT and X at the same time, like on unix
~> (on a SUN the LEFT and RIGHT keys are the same as the ALT key)
~
~Without some major modifications to the source it's a no go. The ALT key
~doesn't generate an ASCII character input whereas ESC does. Any key that
~sends in an character to the machine could be used for META, but ALT is
~just a shift key on a PC.
~

There are other great (I feel better) emacs editors for the PC.  There
is Russ's Freemacs and then there is JOVE.  BOTH OF THESE will handle
meta keys properly (ie use the ALT key) however the version of JOVE I
use doesn't like to use it with numbers.

There is some advantage to using excatly the same editor in different
places, but I wouldn't trade ease of use for it.  I use GNU on the sun
at work and Freemacs at home.  Both are customized look more like each
other (the major difference now is the way the mice work).  Both are
written to take advantage of the machine they are on (Freemacs is FAST
on the screen).
 ___________________
|                   |  Johnathan (with an h) O Vail
| My other Emacs is |  tegra!vail@ulowell.edu
|  Freemacs         |  (508) 663-7435
|___________________|  N1DXG