dko@calmasd.UUCP (Dan O'Neill) (02/07/86)
I am looking for comparative comments on the advantages and
disadvantages of Unipress EMACS over Digital Equipment Corporations
new VAX TPU editor.
I've been a confirmed EMACS fan for at least 7 years and am in the
process of presenting a proposal for EMACS to my management. The
alternative editor is TPU, Text Processing Unit, which has already
been purchased from DEC. I have been using TPU for the past three
days and am not happy with it at all. Just try to bind the
forward-word function (you have to write this yourself) to <esc>-F
in a TPU command file.
I would appreciate comments in the following areas:
- System performance impacts.
- Extensibility.
TPU offers extensibility in a procedural form whereas EMACS
uses MLISP constructs.
- Cost and maintenance fees in relation to a 10 machine VAX cluster.
- User interface.
The initial learning stages of EMACS can be more difficult
than for TPU as EMACS is slightly more cryptic, but with this
complexity are some very powerful editing features.
- Language sensitivity.
DEC provides a Language Sensitive Editing (LSE) interface to
TPU, I have no experience with it. What, if anything, does
LSE offer to FORTRAN and C programmers that libraries such as
Electric-C do not?
- Compilation/debugging facilities.
- Hardware independance.
Does EMACS run on Apollo work stations? and can it be configured
to run on WYSE terminals with limited cursor control and screen
editing functions?
- Online help features.
TPU has a VMS style help command available, but I have been
unable to list key definitions (bindings) for specific
commands.
If you can think of any other areas that would be of importance, in
relation to software development, please include them.
Send responses directly, our local news feed has been quite irregular
lately.
Dan O'Neill UUCP: ...!sdcsvax!calmasd!dko
GE Calma Co. R&D ARPA: "calmasd!dko"@UCSD.ARPA
9805 Scranton Rd
San Diego, CA 92121-1765
(619) 587-3112
--
Dan O'Neill ARPA: dko%vx09.decnet@GE-CRD.ARPA
GE Calma Co. R&D "calmasd!dko"@UCSD.ARPA
9805 Scranton Rd. UUCP: ...!sdcsvax!calmasd!dko
San Diego, CA 92121-1765 GE: CADVAX::VX09::DKO
(619) 587-3112 "When this you see, remember me." - Fauntleroybzs@bucsd.UUCP (Barry Shein) (02/09/86)
>From: dko@calmasd.UUCP (Dan O'Neill) >I am looking for comparative comments on the advantages and >disadvantages of Unipress EMACS over Digital Equipment Corporations >new VAX TPU editor. I would seriously consider GNU emacs, or at least UNIPRESS with sources (or CCA with sources for that matter.) I don't know if sources are available for TPU/LSE (ufiche doesn't count, try loading it into TPU!) Besides being able to fix your own bugs without feeling the helplessness of filling out SPRs you would also instantly be a member of a community (via the nets) that also has sources and can be consulted and used for fast bugfixes and added features (and the GNU people are generally open to putting people's added features on the distribution tapes provided they seem to be of reasonably common interest, perhaps the same for UNIPRESS and CCA, I just don't know.) On the other hand you sound like you run VMS so you may have to wait a while for a version of GNUmacs, though I wouldn't let that alone force your hand until finding out how long that is (maybe soon?) Remember, besides the operating system itself and some of it's utilities the editor is probably one of the single most important and frequently run program on a system. Running without sources can really be a disaster. -Barry Shein, Boston University
garry@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Garry Wiegand) (02/12/86)
In a recent article bzs@bucsd.UUCP (Barry Shein) wrote (with respect to TPU versus emacs): > >I would seriously consider GNU emacs, or at least UNIPRESS with sources >(or CCA with sources for that matter.) I don't know if sources are available >for TPU/LSE (ufiche doesn't count, try loading it into TPU!) Besides being >able to fix your own bugs without feeling the helplessness of filling out >SPRs... I can't resist: perhaps this company is not interested in HAVING bugs that require fixing themselves? Not to mention chaotic updates? Carefully-built systems of the world, unite! Down with Unix! garry wiegand -- garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein) (02/15/86)
>>In a recent article bzs@bucsd.UUCP (Barry Shein) wrote (with respect to >>TPU versus emacs): >> >>I would seriously consider GNU emacs, or at least UNIPRESS with sources >>(or CCA with sources for that matter.) I don't know if sources are available >>for TPU/LSE (ufiche doesn't count, try loading it into TPU!) Besides being >>able to fix your own bugs without feeling the helplessness of filling out >>SPRs... >I can't resist: perhaps this company is not interested in HAVING bugs that >require fixing themselves? Not to mention chaotic updates? >Carefully-built systems of the world, unite! Down with Unix! Fine, I can't resist either. Show me a system where there either are no bugs or fixing them myself is slower than trying to get the vendor interested and I'll buy it. Until then I assume you are comparing UNIX to your fantasies (or are just willing to spend lotsa lotsa bucks on private consultants from the vendor.) -Barry Shein, Boston University