meulenbr@cstw01.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (08/10/89)
As promised here are the results of my survey for syntax directed
editors. I've edited the replies mildly to remove all quotations of the
original article, duplicate signatures, some blank lines, and mail
headers.
Thanks to all the people who send me a reply!
Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl)
Centre for Software Technology
( or try: ...!mcvax!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)
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From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!presto.ig.com!dow@phigate Sat Jul 29 08:37:21 1989
GNU Emacs does brace, paren, & bracket matching, & it also
parses the error messages.
---chd
Chris Dow
IntelliGenetics
700 East El Camino Real
Mountain View, Ca. 94040
dow@presto.ig.com
(415) 962-7320
AisA
---------------------------------
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!nexus.yorku.ca!oz@phigate Sat Jul 29 21:36:09 1989
See "Fred" from University of Illinois @ Urbana. If you have ftp
access, you can pick it up from uihub.cs.uiuc.edu. One other
alternative is the "synthsizer generator" from cornell. It is not
ftp-pickable: you will have to get in touch with them.
Hope this is of any help.. oz
--
They are like the Zen students who, Usenet: oz@nexus.yorku.ca
when the master points at the moon, ......!uunet!utai!yunexus!oz
continue to stare at his finger.... Bitnet: oz@[yulibra|yuyetti]
P. da Silva Phonet: +1 416 736-5257x3976
---------------------------------
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!cs.exeter.ac.uk!admin@phigate Mon Jul 31 16:32:36 1989
There is such a beast called 'syndie', yes runs on unix. Its a
commercial product marketed by IntaSoft
IntaSoft Ltd
60 Portland St
Exeter EX1 2EQ
Devon, UK
Tel: +44 392 217670
Fax: +44 392 412463
--
Khalid Sattar JANET : admin@uk.ac.exeter.cs
Computer Science Dept. UUCP : admin@expya.uucp
University of Exeter BITNET : admin%uk.ac.exeter.cs@ukacrl
Exeter, UK. Tel : +44 392 264062
---------------------------------
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!siswat!buck@phigate Fri Aug 4 02:36:35 1989
Cornell has one that they license for about $200 but I don't have
any contact information anymore.
---
A. Lester Buck ...!texbell!moray!siswat!buck
---------------------------------
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!alpha.ces.cwru.edu!bammi@phigate Fri Aug 4 02:36:45 1989
i mentioned the brown U. maple/balsa system to you last night
in my mail. here are some more:
Alice Pascal: from looking glass software :- probably the best one
that i have used. very well done (even though i hate pascal, and even
though i made a living writing pascal compilers in my deep dark past :-)
runs on many platforms.
Leif: is a customizable SDE, that uses GnuEmacs (with special hacks)
at the back end. It is PD.
tpl: the template programming language - another front end to
GnuEmacs. Not really an SDE but lets you create some pretty neat
templates that can be bound etc in emacs. quite powerful. comes with a
dozen or so examples. Its PD., let me know if you want it.
Cornell stuff: tried it a few light years ago. i quite dont remember what
all the problems were, but i did'nt like it (but then i am biased). On
of the problems was that the incremental compiler did its job at a
very fine level of granularity and complained about things that you
would take care off in a moment. Things may have changed here since it
was a long time ago (i am not sure if we even have a copy of this around).
i have'nt kept up lately with this stuff, and i let my subscription to
TOPLAS expire. if you find some interesting ones please let me know.
regards,
--
bang: {any internet host}!dsrgsun.ces.CWRU.edu!bammi jwahar r. bammi
domain: bammi@dsrgsun.ces.CWRU.edu
GEnie: J.Bammi
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From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!indetech!lrs@phigate Fri Aug 4 08:56:22 1989
Gnu emacs supports syntax sensitive editing of c, c++, lisp, prolog, ada, etc.
With LEAF (a free extyension) it maintains a parse tree as you go along and
allows edits accordingly.
---------------------------------
[ the following message isn in dutch. It references the Gandalf editor
of CMU. Frans]
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!qmflp.junet!spee@phigate Tue Aug 8 09:03:05 1989
Is de Gandalf editor van CMU iets? Een paar jaar terug heeft een
afstudeerder van de afdeling Informatica, TH Delft, Gandalf onder
de loep genomen. Informeer eens bij Ir. R. Huijsman (dezelfde afdeling,
nu TU Delft).
Paul Spee,
spee%qmflp.junet@RELAY.CS.NET
---------------------------------
From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!COGS.SUSSEX.AC.UK!aarons@phigate Wed Aug 9 23:44:22 1989
I wonder whether you have looked at the VED editor in Poplog, which
is used in a number of Philips sites.
It supports both document preparation and program preparation, and
is fully programmable, so it can be indefinitely tailored and
extended to suit the requirements of different languages.
Poplog includes Common Lisp, Prolog, Pop-11 and standard ML. People
also regularly use its editor for developing software written in
other languages, e.g. Pascal, C, Fortran.
VED is written in Pop-11, an interactive Lisp-like language with
a syntax more like Pascal, which many people find more readable.
A VED file is just a vector of strings, so programming extensions
is relatively easy.
It also supports the development of browsable documentation with
multiple cross-references, search lists, etc.
It runs on VAX+VMS VAX+Unix and a range of additional Unix machines
including all the Sun family, Solbourne, Sequent Symmetry, HP 9000
series with HP-UX, Apollo (+Unix). It is currently being ported to
DECstation+Ultrix and MAC II+A/UX. MIPS machines will probably
follow.
VED allows you have a notional file that is actually a window to
a CSH process to which you can give commands from the file (e.g. cc
or ls commands). Any output is spliced into the file. To redo any
command you just put the cursor on it and press <RETURN>.
Alternatively you can edit the command first then redo.
People here also use VED as their front end to Unix mail.
Poplog includes a window manager on Sun-3 and VAXstation, and it is
currently being replaced by an X windows interface (X11 R3), that
should be ready early 1990. (Already being used here).
Poplog is developed here at Sussex University, and is distributed
commercially for us by
Integral Solutions Ltd
Unit 3, Campbell Court
Bramley,
Near Basingstoke,
Hampshire,
RG26 5EG
England
Phone +44-256 882028 Fax +44-256 882182
If you phone, the best person to talk to is Colin Shearer.
If you want more information about Poplog I can send an email
summary, and/or a longer description by post.
Yours sincerely
Aaron Sloman,
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences,
Univ of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QN, England
INTERNET: aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs%nsfnet-relay.ac.uk@relay.cs.net
JANET aarons@cogs.sussex.ac.uk
BITNET: aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs@uk.ac
or aarons%uk.ac.sussex.cogs%ukacrl.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
UUCP: ...mcvax!ukc!cogs!aarons
or aarons@cogs.uucp
Phone: University +(44)-(0)273-678294 (Direct line. Diverts to secretary)
Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl)
Centre for Software Technology
( or try: ...!mcvax!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)meulenbr@cstw01.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks) (08/10/89)
Oops. I noticed that I forgot a few messages in my survey. Here they are. Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcvax!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr) ------------------------------------- From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!cs.nott.ac.uk!al@phigate Fri Aug 4 08:13:01 1989 Hi! John Wilson and I wrote a syntax-directed editor (PED) in the late 1970's and early 1980's. A few details have been added and improved since then, but basically it's been collecting dust. It runs under UNIX and is language- independent -- each language you use it for needs abstract and concrete (or combined) syntax specifications. So far it has such specifications for Pascal, C, Modula-2, Ada, and Algol 68 (without formats). The Pascal specification is the only really polished one, though. Improving the specification has a great impact on the use of the editor. I am using PED as a test-bed for other ideas, but we have no plans to release it as we haven't the manpower to polish it up and to fill in all the missing areas (no code generation!). In any case there are better examples around now. PED is a pure synthesising editor; although there's a parser for Pascal programs, there is no incremental parsing in PED. More modern syntax-directed editors allow either text input or structure specification at any stage. In structure mode, errors are prevented; in text mode, they are immediately detected. See, for example, "The PSG System: From Formal Language Definitions To Interactive Programming Environments" by Rolf Bahlke and Gregor Snelting (Technical University of Darmstadt) in ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Vol 8, No 4, October 1986, pp. 547-576. I wouldn't recommend using a pure synthesising editor for C. With Pascal, the long names used as syntactic signposts (e.g. "procedure", "begin") make pure synthesis likely to save keystrokes; not so in C. Also, in Pascal, the rigid outer syntax forces a top-down expansion that the syntax-directed editor can lead; in C, there is so much choice at the top level that the editor cannot provide a visible skeleton framework for the program expansion. I think this effect arises when the syntax is less constraining generally -- you wouldn't find syntax-directed editors very helpful in assembly-language programming. I expect you know about the work at Carnegie Mellon and at Cornell. Good luck with your enquiry, Anne Lomax. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr Anne Lomax | JANET: al@uk.ac.nott.cs Computer Science Department | ARPA: al%nott.cs@ucl-cs.arpa University of Nottingham, U.K. | UUCP: mcvax!ukc!nott.cs!al ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ From hp4nl!hp4nl.nluug.nl!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack@phigate Fri Aug 4 13:16:21 1989 There is a thing called "Leif" which is a syntax-directed editor generator that outputs macro packages for Gnu Emacs. It's in the comp.sources.unix archives somewhere. best wishes - jack -- Jack Campin * Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND. 041 339 8855 x6045 wk 041 556 1878 ho INTERNET: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk USENET: jack@glasgow.uucp JANET: jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs PLINGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl) Centre for Software Technology ( or try: ...!mcvax!phigate!prle!cst!meulenbr)