LARRY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA (Larry Carroll) (02/21/85)
The more advanced versions of EMACS have a built-in extension language that lets the user customize it. I've seen programmers (usually C programmers for some reason) who've set it up to insert structures when they type keywords like "if," "select," "struct," or whatever. EMACS can recognize file types and act differently according to whether C, Pascal, ForTran, or whatever is being coded. EMACS can also check parentheses/brackets for matches, do automatic indenting, and other actions. I've found its regular expression search/replace to be especially useful. I also like the fact that I can bind any function to any key or sequence of keys. On my vt220 the ESC key is in a weird place, so I've "put it back where it belongs." The ability to jump into a shell and execute, then go back to editing is very useful. If you want the shell can be run inside an EMACS window, then edited, saved in a file, and re-used after leaving EMACS. That's useful when I want to try out a script with actual examples then parameterize it. I've added box- and line-drawing functions so I can do charts, paragraph reformatting for word processing--and the new commands are almost as fast as if they'd been compiled because I use a lot of the built-in compiled functions. EMACS also has a simple DBMS that can be used for setting up HELP and menu systems and probably for things I've not yet thought up. When I have to go to a system without EMACS it's like working with my hands tied. Larry @ jpl-vlsi ------