wcs@ho95e.UUCP (x0705) (08/13/85)
Is there any way to get EMACS to display screen images other than the contents of the file? (At least to have sections of the file not show up on the screen?) I'd like to write a word processor, and EMACS seems like a good environment. -- ## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs
barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin) (08/16/85)
In article <161@ho95e.UUCP> wcs@ho95e.UUCP (x0705) writes: >Is there any way to get EMACS to display screen images other than the >contents of the file? Emacs doesn't display the contents of the file, it displays the contents of the buffer. There is no reason that the buffer has to contain the same characters as any file. You merely need to write new versions of the file reading/writing commands which translate to/from the file format to the text you wish to display. For instance, we have a mode in Multics Emacs in which the buffer displays the contents of the file in a format similar to Unix's "od" output. In such buffers ^X^W and ^X^S are bound to object-mode-write-file and object-mode-save-same-file, which translate from dump format to normal while writing out. Another example is Dired, which displays directories much differently from the way they actually appear in the directory files. In other words, your extension code has full control over what the user sees in the buffer. -- Barry Margolin ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar