trudel@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (Jonathan D. Trudel) (07/24/86)
> There was a rumour in the April issue of Amazing Computing that stated > that Unipress was coming out with an Amiga version of Emacs. Has anyone > heard anything more about this? I already have the most recent Public > Domain MicroEmacs, but I prefer to Unipress version that I use at college > on a VAX 750. Well, there is truth to the rumor. Unipress is working on a port, but it'll take some time. It needs to be streamlined, as the sources already take up gobs of space. How do I know this? I've met the person doing the port. I don't know if he reads this group (or if he even has a unipress account!). I don't know when they plan on -- Tru- arpa: trudel@blue.rutgers.edu uucp:{seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!topaz!blue!trudel
hga@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Harold Ancell) (07/26/86)
Organization: In article <2835@caip.RUTGERS.EDU> trudel@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (Jonathan D. Trudel) writes: > >Well, there is truth to the rumor. Unipress is working on a port, but >it'll take some time. It needs to be streamlined, as the sources >already take up gobs of space. How do I know this? I've met the >person doing the port. I don't know if he reads this group (or if he >even has a unipress account!). I don't know when they plan on > >-- >Tru- arpa: trudel@blue.rutgers.edu > uucp:{seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!topaz!blue!trudel We aren't going to \streamline/ it---the port will be of the full 2.10 (or later) Unix version. What I am working on right now is a self-paging system that will let all the versions of Unipress Emacs run reasonably on non-virtual memory machines. The sources are moby, ~ .9 MB, but they compile down to a 250K or so image (generic 68K pcc compiler.) We should be able to slim it down a bit further, and the self-paging system will allow you to specify how much additional memory to use for buffers, electric-c mode, etc. Note: We're doing the Amiga port mostly out of love for the Amiga (it's the personal computer preferred by two out of three Unipress technical staff members...) and it will take a while to do correctly, but it will be affordable and spiffy when we do get finished with it. - Harold uucp: {seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!topaz!unipress!hga arpa: hga@mc.lcs.mit.edu
higgin@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom) (08/03/86)
In article <2688@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> hga@mit-eddie.UUCP (Harold Ancell) writes: >We aren't going to \streamline/ it---the port will be of the full 2.10 >(or later) Unix version. What I am working on right now is a >self-paging system that will let all the versions of Unipress Emacs run >reasonably on non-virtual memory machines. > >The sources are moby, ~ .9 MB, but they compile down to a 250K or so >image (generic 68K pcc compiler.) We should be able to slim it down a >bit further, and the self-paging system will allow you to specify how >much additional memory to use for buffers, electric-c mode, etc. > >Note: We're doing the Amiga port mostly out of love for the Amiga (it's >the personal computer preferred by two out of three Unipress technical >staff members...) and it will take a while to do correctly, but it will >be affordable and spiffy when we do get finished with it. > > - Harold > >uucp: {seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!topaz!unipress!hga >arpa: hga@mc.lcs.mit.edu I do like Emacs, but 250K for an editor on the Amiga? It would be useless, even off a hard disk. It would take at least 15 seconds to load (not just due to transfer, but all the seeking, because it would not likely be all neatly placed on the disk). The Commodore version of Emacs is ~60K and takes 7 seconds to load off floppy. My version (pretty whittled down, I must confess, because I want it to load fast) loads in 3 off floppy, 1.5 off RAM: and 2 off my hard disk. In a development environment (for me anyway) it gets very frustrating waiting for an editor to load! Comments? Paul Higginbottom Disclaimer: I do not work for Commodore, and my opinions are my own, and I probably won't be around to see any replies.
mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz) (08/04/86)
When you have a few megabytes of ram (or even at least one, for that matter) you can leave your EMACS running all the time, so load time is not that big a factor. However, making sure that you save your files that you edit back to floppy is. A guru meditation in another program while you have unsaved buffers can be deadly. I write these days in assembler language as much as possible, and I keep my Emacs running all the time. I also keep a CLI running and sometimes have the manx debugger running at the same time, too. Of course, the program I am debugging works at 127 priority, so no task switch overhead is added to the system while debugging my programs. Sure is nice to be able to click on the debugger and step until some code with a bug in it is found. Then click on the editor and make the change right there on the spot. Don't even have to leave the editor to remake (got the CLI...). So, I guess to sum it up, who cares how long it takes to load Unipress Emacs. The real question is how slow will it be when it is running? I use GNU emacs on the vax here occaisionally, and it is ridiculous (slow). You see the posting in this group about Mac software that is available vs. Amiga software that is available? Seems to me that this EMACS could easily be THE editor/wordprocessor for the Amiga (so far). Granted, there is no "desktop" publishing software (yet - emphasize yet), but it is only a matter of time before it is here. How about Microsoft Word? I bet it will be ported to the Amiga soon (it should be). In the mean time, we Amiga users simply "suffer" with "junk" like c-kermit (115K of code...) and Hack (200K of code) and about 30+ megabytes (let's see, Fred Fish has about 30 disks * about 1MB per disk [880K...]) of other stuff. How long was it before the Mac had more than just 2 programs?
daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (08/04/86)
> > In article <2688@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> hga@mit-eddie.UUCP (Harold Ancell) writes: >>The sources are moby, ~ .9 MB, but they compile down to a 250K or so >>image (generic 68K pcc compiler.) We should be able to slim it down a >>bit further, and the self-paging system will allow you to specify how >>much additional memory to use for buffers, electric-c mode, etc. >> >> - Harold >> > I do like Emacs, but 250K for an editor on the Amiga? It would be useless, > even off a hard disk. It would take at least 15 seconds to load (not just > due to transfer, but all the seeking, because it would not likely be all > neatly placed on the disk). ... > > Comments? > > Paul Higginbottom > > Disclaimer: I do not work for Commodore, and my opinions are my own, and I > probably won't be around to see any replies. > There's an EMACS I use whenever I have to use VAX/VMS, which takes almost 15 seconds to get going on the VAX. The thing about it is that its a fantastic version of EMACS and does everything I want it to. And since it starts up as a separate process, I only start it once. I used a very similar setup on a DEC-20 running TOPS and a TECO-based EMACS (at CMU). The startup time for both of these is trivial; you only start them on rare occasions. There's no reason not to expect that a 256K EMACS on an Amiga with a Meg or two expansion RAM won't recieve a similar kind of treatment, even if its a bit slow for a 512K Amiga and floppies. -- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Dave Haynie {caip,ihnp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "I don't feel safe in this world no more, I don't want to die in a nuclear war, I want to sail away to a distant shore And live like an ape man." -The Kinks These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they be yours too. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/