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From: gsg0384@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Best Shareware Editor.
Message-ID: <111700040@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 89 06:00:00 GMT
Lines: 78
Nf-ID: #N:uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:111700040:000:3563
Nf-From: uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!gsg0384    Feb 15 00:00:00 1989


Regarding to my base notes,  Ashok Nadkarni wrote:
>/* Written 11:57 am  Feb 13, 1989 by nadkarni@erlang.dec.com in uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.ibm.pc */
>/* ---------- "Re. PD editors" ---------- */
>>Seems like the three most outstanding contenders for the best
>>shareware --*programmers'*-- (ASCII processing) editor are

>>1. Blackbeard Programmers' Editor 7.25
>>2. PCWrite 3.02
>>3. MicroEmacs (What Version is this?)

>Well, you left out my favourite - Freemacs. It is free, it comes with source,
>and the entire (and I mean ENTIRE) editor is programmable. The editor is
>written in the MINT programming language, and all changes/extensions are
>written in this. I looked at all the three above and they don't come close
>in terms of programmability (which was most important to me). Mice support
>is included. If you don't like what the mouse does, change it! This editor
>is a real gem. Thanks Russ Nelson !

>The drawbacks are - file size < 64K, max 2 windows, learning MINT is about
>as hard (or easy) as LISP (you don't have to learn MINT if you don't want
>to add or extend it) and it takes a while to get up to speed on it. Also,
>since all functions are in interpreted MINT, it is sometimes a little slow
>on a 4.77Mhz PC but still good enough to make my it personal choice.

>/Ashok Nadkarni

And from porter@caip.rutgers.edu Sat Feb 11 22:17:23 1989

>Qedit 2.07 is tremendously preferred to all of the mentioned editors
>by many people.  I use it, and it is a GREAT editor for programming or
>other uses.  (It has C, Pascal, many other modes, and is a fantastic,
>FAST, all-around ASCII editor.)  1 thing I like best about Qedit is
>its configurability.

I think configurability does not really count unless it is really easy
to configure.  (I wont spend a night making some small changes any more.)

  The initial reason I started seeking best PD editor was that I wanted
to edit 'backup.log' file which was bigger than 64kbytes.  In such cases,
features do not matter, but capability matters.
Anyway I got copies of both BlackBeard and FreeEmacs.

If I compare those two, each has its own merits and drawbacks.

BlackBeard has a pop-up menu structure.  So, easy to first-time users.
It has overlapping windows.  Great.  But:

1. You should always be careful not to hit the mouse left button accidentally.
(Quite annoying at times)
2. Once you visit a file, the modification date changes no matter you modified
or not.
3. When you switch between overlapping windows, you updates the file
  automatically even when you don't want to.
4. Cut-and-paste requires *some*(about 9) keystrokes or mouse-button clicks.
   Sometimes you have to check whether you have cleared the paste buffer.

Freemacs is quite similar to GNUEmacs.  If you have not learned Emacs,
it will take time to learn.
It has the spelling checker.  It supports scope checking.  Great.

1. It has a separate curser for mouse.  It does not support M-x edit-picture.
   So you have to type 'space' up to the place you really want to type.
   You will get easily confused with the real curser position.
   It is really annoying.
2. In the top area and bottom area, mouse left-button does something
   unwanted.
3. It does not support bigger-than-64k files.  Pity  *%#$@ ix86!

Conclusion:

They are both great products.  Cheers to those programmers for their
efforts.
So I decided to have both in the hard-disk space.  (I have only 22Mbytes :-{ )
And now I finish search leaving QEDIT.  I do not have time any more.

                   Hugh
                   gsg0384@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu