kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) (06/27/88)
In article <8806221300.aa19421@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> bfox%cornu%hub.ucsb.edu@mitvma.mit.edu writes: >The program costs $79.00. I don't happen to have a blurb on the program >availabe right now (my //gs is in Boston) but I can say that it is Emacs for >the Apple // family of computers. > >Looking forward to more correspondence, > > Brian Fox Just like to say that I'm sorry I missed my 2 in my original post, and I thought it was $75. See my other post (soon, i think) on why $75 is sort of a lot for me. . . BTW, I'm pretty sure that AMACS is nice, but I don't use Emacs. I use Jove, which is a wee bit faster, in that it makes assumptions about one's terminal, and thus makes better use of the terminal capabilites, such as vt100 terminals (which is why I was so hot for a vt100 terminal emulator). I would be happy with a real VI port, since what I want (not lisp) is mostly regular expressions. Yes, I know emacs has regexps, but I wish I could get Jove for the //e, there's one for the mac. In anycase, I might get a demo of your program, Mr. Fox, now that I have a *job*! Sean Kamath (he of the blushing keyboard!) -- UUCP: {decvax allegra ucbcad ucbvax hplabs ihnp4}!tektronix!reed!kamath CSNET: reed!kamath@Tektronix.CSNET || BITNET: reed!kamath@PSUVAX1.BITNET ARPA: reed!kamath@PSUVAX1.CS.PSU.EDU US Snail: 3934 SE Boise, Portland, OR 97202-3126 (I hate 4 line .sigs!)
danr@pro-simasd.cts.COM (Dan Rubesh) (07/06/88)
With the rash of AMACS commentary on the net in the past week or so, I was
compelled to dig out the following review of AMACS that Morgan Davis of
ProLine fame wrote back in November '87... I think it pretty much describes
AMACS for what it is.. Re-posted with permission of the author..
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 87 02:12:09 PST
From: Morgan Davis <mdavis@pro-sol.cts.COM>
To: info-apple@bass.nosc.MIL
Subject: Do You Need The Ultimate Text Editor?
This message is intended for the following types of Info-Apple subscribers:
o Apple software developers
o UNIX users and programmers who own Apples
o Dyed-in-the-wool techno-geeks who just love this kind of stuff
If you're not one of these important members of this forum, press your cancel
key now and just move onto the next message.
=-=-=-=
I've been waiting a year to place this message here. But first let me give a
short introduction on what I'm about to tell you...
About a year and half ago, a programmer named Brian Fox called my bulletin
board system and signed up for an account. Brian is one of those
"high-performance" assembly language programmers who just loves a great
challenge. He sure picked a dilly of a coding project, too. That's what
this message is all about.
Now, before I dive in, let me say that this is not an advertisement. I'm not
being remunerated in any way to post this here. This really is just a public
announcement of a product that I believe all of you will be extremely
interested in. Brian's software company is not a Pinpoint Publisher, so he
needs all the exposure he can get. Being part of a very small software
company myself (Living Legends), I know how important this kind of "grass
roots" support can be for a new product. Anyway, back to the story...
It seems that Brian thought he could write a version of EMACS for the Apple
computer! His Apple version would be called AMACS, of course. And like all
good stories, this one has a happy ending: Brian has written AMACS, and has
done a remarkable job.
So, just what is AMACS?
Here's how the first paragraph in his user's manual describes it:
AMACS is a powerful full screen text editor for users of
the Apple // family of computer with 128k of RAM or more.
It is modeled after the editor in use at the MIT Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory called EMACS. Although EMACS is
always typed in all caps, we don't believe that it is an
acronym for anything in particular. Some people think that
it recursively stands for "EMACS Makes All Computing
Simple". We have decided that "AMACS Manages ASCII
Characters Superbly" is too egotistical. Suffice to say
that AMACS is the Apple version of EMACS.
You've probably heard of EMACS. In fact, if you do any serious programming
on a UNIX computer, you're probably using EMACS or something very close to
it, like Jove, GNU Emacs, or whatever.
Brian had asked me if I would be interested in checking out his editor. I'm
always curious to see what other programmers are doing, so I expressed my
interest. A few days later, I got a package in the mail containing a disk
and a manual. It promptly went onto a shelf in the closet where it could
collect an adequate layer of gray, household dust.
One day when I had nothing to do, which occurs about as often as our national
budget is balanced, I decided to try out AMACS. I had a few prodding
messages from Brian asking me how I was coming along with it anyway. So, I
booted up the disk and turned to page one in his manual. Now, understand
that I have had plenty of experience with VI, line editors, and commercial
word processors for the Apple, but never anything like EMACS, Jove, nor
AMACS.
Let's face it, this is not going to be your average testimonial, because the
AMACS learning curve was rough for me. In fact, it wasn't a curve at all. It
was more like hitting a ten-foot brick wall at high speed, and then having to
scale it. Now, you're probably wondering why I'm telling you this negative
stuff. Well, I'm being honest with you. Learning AMACS was tough; it took me
about a week to master it. But I'm using it right now, a year later, writing
you this note about how wonderful the program really is.
In a personal note, Brian explained to me this difficulty in learning the
program:
"People tend to have a hard time learning EMACS style editors because it
requires them to unlearn all of the bad things that they have already learned
about software. The reason EMACS style editors make you more productive, is
that they tend to open up your mind to *all* aspects of a program, not just
the output, but the comments, the code organization, the algoritms, etc.
This means that your programming becomes more concise algorithmically
speaking, and more verbose (or meaningful) textually. People who use your
program will notice that it is more consistent in user-interface than others
that they have seen. This is a direct carry-over from using AMACS."
And of course, he's right. My stumbling blocks were not due to AMACS, they
were because of all the weirdness I had learned to submit to in all the other
programs I had been using. When you can take a fresh look at AMACS, you
realize just how logical it really is. Anyway, I'm digressing...
Users and lovers of EMACS don't need any hype -- they're already hooked on the
editor. For these people, this missive is just an announcement that there is
an honest-to-goodness EMACS-style editor for the Apple, and a darn good one,
too.
The rest of this hype is for the skeptics...
After a year of comparing AMACS to Jove (Jonathan's Own Version of EMACS) on
a local UNIX system I have an account on, I'm extremely impressed with what
Brian Fox has done. The accuracy and completeness is astounding. What's
more, Brian has gone past EMACS and has implemented a lot of additional
enhancements. Without a doubt, this editor is the epitome of a programmer's
source code and text editor.
It's quite prolific as a text editor, too. It provides special "modes" that
allow you to edit text in a bunch of specialized formats. For example, the
mode I'm using now is "Text Fill" -- which really means that AMACS acts like a
word processor, with word-wrap, paragraph filling, and all that sort of neat
stuff. But AMACS also has modes for assembly language, C programming, Pascal
source editing, Lisp, and BASIC formats. You can set the size of the tab key
to any number of columns, adjust the margins, and everything else you can do
with other editors.
I use AMACS to edit and create assembly source code for use with the Merlin
assembler (AMACS was assembled with Merlin, by the way). But it's also
excellent for working with APW Assembler, C, TML Pascal and TML BASIC source
code, and regular text files. It really doesn't care what the file contains,
so you can even read binary files into AMACS!
Because AMACS has fourteen different editing buffers, you can edit a C
program and a Pascal program at the *same* time: one file in one buffer, and
the other file in a second buffer. AMACS allows you to easily cut and paste
between buffers, as well as view two buffers on the screen at once in a
"split screen" mode. This kind of power is what every good programmer needs
in a text editor.
But wait, there's more! Act now and you'll receive this handsome set of
stainless steel kitchen knives...er...ahem.
AMACS has over 136 unique editing functions that you can attach to any keys
on the keyboard. This is because AMACS is totally flexible in the way it
handles keyboard commands. You essentially have an "editor construction set"
with AMACS. Each time AMACS runs, it processes an "init" file that contains
addtional or replacement command-key definitions that you've set up. So AMACS
is always ready to work just the way you want it to.
Now, some of you sharper minds might be wondering how you can access 136
functions when there are only a few keys on the keyboard. AMACS can
recognize the key itself (any letter, number, or symbol), the Control-key
version, the Open-Apple key version, and the Open-Apple-Control-key version.
In addition, AMACS knows the difference between the Control-H key and the
Left-Arrow on the Apple IIGS keyboard (same with the rest of the arrow keys).
So, you add them up. More than enough keys to represent all of AMACS'
functions. Of course, editor commands that you don't assign to a particular
keystroke can still be accessed in AMACS' "Command window".
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Brian's program is the ability to create
macro commands. Macros, as we all know, are abbreviated forms of very
complex sequences. They're great for churning out tedious tasks that would
otherwise take a zillion keystrokes with any regular text editor. In AMACS,
you could press one key and have a dozen functions be performed instantly,
over and over again. With macros, a bunch of low-level editing functions can
be used to create brand new commands. The possibilities are endless.
I could go on and on about the gobs of built-in features in AMACS, such as
the "parenthesis blinker", a fundamental part of AMACS that causes matching
parens, curly brackets, or square brackets, to blink when you put the cursor
on one of them. No more guessing on nested expressions! Then there's
built-in printer handling that lets you control the output to any kind of
printer, including the LaserWriter. Don't forget AMACS' dozens of disk-based
libraries: each one adds even more commands and features to AMACS -- you
choose only the ones you need, and you can write your own! I'd get carried
away by listing the dozens of really nice features Brian has packed into
AMACS.
The help facilities built into AMACS are unparalleled. You can get help on
EVERYTHING in the program. There is more descriptive text (in a disk-based
file) that explains every command than you'll find in any program. You can
find brief or verbose descriptions of a command, or what keys run a given
command, or what commands have the word "file" in them. You can get a quick
command listing, or find out what function is run by a key, or get detailed
descriptions on everything that deals with a keyword (i.e., "tell me
everything about 'buffers' in AMACS"). This is all done from within the
program!
So AMACS must be a real memory hog, right?
Nope, not in the least. The 128K Apple //e and //c version gives you a 48K
editing buffer, a testament to Brian's efficient coding abilities. The Apple
IIGS version (work in progress) gives you many times more space for text,
depending upon the amount of RAM in your computer.
When you're done using AMACS, you can quit to the operating system, or you
can exit directly from AMACS to another application. There's even a "Run
Compiler" command that will allow you to press a key and have your compiler
or assembler come up immediately.
=-=-=-=
Well, it's obvious that there are just too many good things to say about
AMACS. Why haven't you heard to seen anything about it yet? Like I said,
Brian's company is a small, but responsive, organization that, like so many
others, has a great product but doesn't have the resources for mass
marketing. The advantages to this are: excellent technical support,
reasonable update policies, and very affordable pricing. Believe it or not,
you can send a $79 check made out to Creative Thinking, Included, Brian's
company, and get the very latest version of the program.
For the skeptics, Creative Thinking will let you buy a 100 page AMACS manual
and fully-functional version of AMACS for just $15. The only thing is that
you won't be able to save text to disk until you give in and send the
remainder of the $79 price to Creative Thinking. That's a fair deal if
you're just interested in seeing if AMACS is for you.
I didn't want this to sound like one of those half-hour product advertising
shows that you see on cable TV, but AMACS has really boosted my productivity
level beyond description. The fever has been caught by a lot of other
high-powered programmers, too.
Here are some comments from Brian about a few interesting people who use
AMACS:
Darach Foskett, Senior Programmer at UNICOM's Software Development
Group has been using AMACS for over 1 1/2 years. He has just
finished writing //Write for Random House Publishing, a WYSIWYG
MacWrite look-alike for the Apple. His extensive use of AMACS has
helped to make this product one of the most bullet-proof I have
seen.
The Bank Street Group, (Bank Street Writer) has a site license for
AMACS, and have been using it for about 1 year. Gordon Riggs, a
head programmer, has been especially helpful in suggesting
enhancements to the program.
Morgan Davis, the author of this mess, tells me he uses AMACS all
the time. He never writes anything good though, so it's hard to
tell. If he would only write something like a BBS, or perhaps an
ampersand utility that would allow me to control my modem from
within BASIC programs... As some of us know, Morgan is the author
of ProLine, an extensively well thought out BBS system, as well as
ModemWorks, the ampersand utility that allows direct control of
your modem from within Applesoft BASIC.
Steve Bannasch, of The Educational Research Center (TERC) uses
AMACS. Steve is a prolific hardware and software wizard who, along
with his cohort Sean Nolan, has written several useful Apple
utilities, including Rosetta, an Applesoft pseudo-compiler, with a
complete built-in enhancements package. The Applesoft Enhancements
Package is an ampersand utility that gives you labeled subroutines,
and pretty printing, among other things. Steve has written a
tags-processing file for MAKETAGS (all part of AMACS) for
determining the presence of an AppleSoft Enhancements label.
There are more, like Chuck Kelly, designer of the Exterminator
card, an indispensable tool in the debugging process, John Carey
from MIT, George Bracket, author of several storyboards for the
Apple, Michael Lowe, fiction writer, the programmers at United
Software Industries, developers of MouseTalk and ASCII Express,
Jerry Hewett, author of DiskWorks and Last-Cat from Living Legends
Software, and the list goes on and on...
One thing I have noticed, the people who use AMACS tend to
be winners, and they like AMACS because it helps them to win
faster. But that's why I wrote it. I needed to create an
editor that could DWIM. (Do What I Mean...)
...and so he has. The thing I've noticed is that Brian uses the word "win" a
lot. This attitude obviously has something to do with the success of AMACS.
Occasionally, I've seen members of Info-Apple compare Apple word processors
to EMACS: "AppleWriter is the next best thing to EMACS (which I really
love)". Well, now's the time to forget playing with inane text editors move
up to the most powerful text editing system you can get at ANY price for
the Apple // series of computers.
For more information, write Creative Thinking, Inc. at:
AMACS c/o CTI
119 Hawthorne Street
Chelsea, MA 02150
************************************
* *
* ADDRESS CORRECTION: *
* *
* Brian Fox *
* 220 Ladera St. #214 *
* Santa Barbara, CA. 93101 *
* *
* (as of 7/03/88 danr) *
* *
************************************
About the Author...
Brian Fox is the author of AMACS, an implementation of EMACS for the Apple //
series of computers. He has written the 128K version of Terrapin Logo, a
complete command language specification for Corvus networks (Network
Manager's Toolkit), designed and implemented a specialized file system for
the Apple (netWORKS), and is currently hacking GNU with Richard Stallman at
MIT, (GNU's Not Unix), a version of Unix to be given away as free software to
the world.
He is a music lover, children lover, lover of women, and not into
long-winded, self-introspective, reflexive examinations of his id.
You can reach Brian Fox at the following network addresses:
UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-sol!amacs
INET: amacs@pro-sol.cts.com
ARPA: bfox@ai.ai.mit.edu.arpa
bfox@wheaties.ai.mit.edu.arpa
Thanks for putting up with all the "hype" here. I just got the latest
version of AMACS tonite and I was just too jazzed about all of it's new
features. I hope other serious Apple programmers do not miss the opportunity
to check out this "winning" piece of code.
--Morgan Davis
UUCP: [ ihnp4 cbosgd hplabs!hp-sdd sdcsvax nosc ] !crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mdavis
ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-sol!mdavis@nosc.mil
INET: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The usual disclaimers apply...
UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!pro-simasd!danr
ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-simasd!danr@nosc.mil
INET: danr@pro-simasd.cts.combfox@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU (Brian Fox) (01/27/89)
From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Cc: Brian Fox <bfox@wheaties.ai.mit.edu>
Ah, Vince AMACS isn't public domain or shareware; besides its rather a
large package for network distribution AND you really need the docs in
hard copy. You'll have to buy AMACS if you want it.
Hello.
In light of the volume of requests for information that I have received from
many readers of this news-group/mailing-list, I have decided to clarify the
current state of the AMACS text editor.
AMACS is an editor written entirely in 6502 assembler. The main source code
resides in about 80 files, averaging 17k in length. There are an additional
30-40 files of source code. The source for the manual is in Texinfo format, a
dialect of TeX, and is probably only of interest to mainframe users who
wouldn't mind printing out a 140 page manual for themselves.
I wrote this editor in the spring of 1984, for DOS 3.3. I made a ProDOS
version in the winter of that year, and subsequently hacked it when it seemed
necessary for the next couple of years. I have made no substantial changes to
the program within the last year.
The editor runs on the Apple //e, //c, and //gs computers; in short, it runs
on anything that looks like an apple with an extended 128k card.
It is, in my opinion, the most complete implementation of Emacs that currently
exists on any Apple computer, including Micro-Emacs.
However, it has two major drawbacks:
1) It only uses the alternate ram bank for data space, so the maximum
amount of buffer space is 48k. This could be gotten around in a number
of ways, but I don't have the time nor inclination to hack them in.
2) It was designed to run under ProDOS 8, not ProDOS 16, so in order to
execute it from a shell such as APW, first ProDOS 8 is launched, and
then AMACS can start up. This can be time consuming, and in fact is
the only complaint that I have had about AMACS in the past year.
Since I am not actively hacking the code, I have decided to release the source
for other people to look at (it is exceptionally easy to read), and perhaps
some of those people will make the minor modifications to the program to fix
the above complaints.
If you ask me for AMACS, I will send you 2 3 1/2" disks with the source code
on them, 1 disk with the standard distributable objects on them (either
double-sided 5 1/4, or 3 1/2), and the 140 page hardcopy manual.
For this, I ask $79.00. Why do I ask for money at all? There is a the
physical cost: for me to make the manuals and disks, and to maintain the
equipment for doing so requires personal case. There is the original cost of
making the program; I went into debt on my rent for 3 months to write the
first version. And there is the incentive factor to me to cause me to
continue to distribute the program.
At any rate, I will not prevent people from copying and passing the program
among themselves, but there is a distinction from getting the program from the
author, and from getting the program from Fred, who got it from Bob, who got
it from Harry, who ...
My primary concern is that unwittingly, someone could manifest a bug in the
code, or distribute changed versions of AMACS under my name. I do not wish
this to happen. So, while I do not wish to prevent the free copying of the
materials, I am refusing responsibilty for the correctness of the program
unless it is directly received from me.
Brian Foxdemarco@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Vince Demarco) (01/28/89)
Thanks for you replay Brian Fox. I really don't wan't to spend 80 dollars on it though. I really just wanted to look at the editor to see what it was like. COun't you just upload the basic editor with minimal docs and no source code? Vince
blume@netmbx.UUCP (Heiko Blume) (02/01/89)
i'd suggest a minor but important fix to amacs (and many other programs
that want 128K and disconnect the /ram drive allways, grrr):
it would be real nice to have a option in the init script that specifies
whether the /ram drive must me disconnected (thats for prodos' /ram in the
second 64k) or not. that way many people could use their meg byte /ram's
which are not in the lower 128K.
--
Heiko Blume | lazy : blume@netmbx.UUCP
Seekorso 29 | crazy : ...!{pyramid,unido,altger}!tmpmbx!netmbx!blume
1 Berlin 22 | noisy : (+49 30) 365 55 71 | bbs : (+49 30) 365 75 01
WestGermany | telex : 183008 intro d | fax : (+49 30) 882 50 65wiles@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU (Dale Wiles) (02/23/90)
In article <8967@wpi.wpi.edu> greyelf@wpi.wpi.edu (Michael J Pender) writes: >I spoke to Brian Fox yesterday, he says he now sells amacs for $10, >which covers the cost of copying the manual. $25 gets you >a copy of the source code too... > Could you give us more information? How close to (GNU) Emacs is it. Does it work on straight text files, or is it some special format file? Can I edit more that one file at a time? Is it standard ProDOS, and can I edit files in a ram disk. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm an Emacs user and Appleworks makes me barf, so I'm interested in a $10 clone. Also, how does someone go about ordering it? Thanks *Emacs came, Dale, lad, Emacs came. *(c) Marty Storer, Goog Inc. *Disclaimer: I disclaim nothing! I am THE official*Looks more (bonk) *opinion of my college, state, country and of all *like a sick-e-more (bonk) *carbon based life forms in the universe. *to me. Yogi the Space Bear.