[comp.emacs] EDT Emulation Beta Test for GNU Emacs

kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org (Kevin Gallagher) (05/23/91)

A new enhanced version of the EDT emulation within GNU Emacs is ready for beta
testing.  It is a fairly close emulation with lots of extras.  Anyone
interested in participating should send me email as soon as possible (please
do NOT post such requests).  In a week or two I will notify everyone who
volunteers if they are to be part of the beta test.  I expect the beta test
period to last two or three months.

I hope to get a good cross section of users on many different platforms with
many different terminals.  The emulation package currently supports VT100
series, VT200 series, and VT300 series terminals.  In addition, we provide
support for Apollo Workstations using the Low Profile II keyboard and Emacs
version 18.54 and above.  We must rely on beta testers to help us generate
support for other terminals.  So I am particularly interested in testers
familiar with the programming requirements of the terminals they use and who
have at least some understanding of Emacs Lisp.  But this is not a
requirement. 

We have tested the package on Apollo Workstations under SR10.2 and SR10.3 and
on a VAX running VMS 5.3.

In you decide to volunteer, please be sure to identify the hardware
platform(s), operating system(s), and terminal(s) you are using.

Here are some selected highlights to be found in the new emulation:

1.  The EDT define key command is supported.  The TPU/EVE learn command is
    supported.  We also supply a restore key command which will restore the
    last replaced definition to a key.

2.  Direction support is fully supported.  It is no longer accomplished by
    re-defining keys each time the direction is changed.  Thus, commands
    sensitive to the current direction setting may be bound easily to any key.

3.  ALL original emacs bindings are fully restored when EDT emulation is
    turned off.

4.  User custom EDT bindings are kept separate from the default EDT bindings.
    One can toggle back and forth between the custom EDT bindings and default
    EDT bindings.

5.  The Emacs functions in edt.el attempt to emulate, where practical,
    the exact behavior of the corresponding EDT keypad mode commands.  In a
    few cases, the emulation is not exact, but we expect you will agree it is
    close enough.  

6.  EDT defaults a section size to be 16 lines of its one and only 24-line
    window.  That's two-thirds of the window at a time.  The SECT emulation
    moves the cursor two-thirds of the current window size.  (There is also an 
    edt-scroll-window function which you may prefer over the SECT emulation.) 

7.  Cursor movement and deletion involving word entities is identical to EDT
    except for its treatment of TABs.  EDT treats each TAB as an individual
    word.  Emacs treats them as whitespace, as does this EDT emulation.  (This
    was a simple judgment call that can be easily changed if the demand is
    there.  We are also considering providing support of user specification of
    a set of word delimiter characters.)

8.  EDT's FIND and FNDNXT are supported.

9.  EDT's APPEND and REPLACE commands are supported.

10. Form feed and tab insert commands are supported.

11. The TPU/EVE Retangular Cut and Paste in both insert and overwrite modes is
    supported. 

12. The original EDT emulation package set up many default regular and GOLD
    bindings.  We tried to preserve most of these, so users of the original
    emulation package will feel more at home.  

13. The VT200 and VT300 series terminals have no ESC, BS, nor LF keys, as does
    a VT100.  So the default EDT bindings adopt the standard DEC convention of
    interpreting F11 as ESC, F12 as BS, and F13 as LF on these terminals.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Gallagher        kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org OR ...!uunet!digi!kgallagh
DSC Communications Corporation   Addr: MS 152, 1000 Coit Rd, Plano, TX 75075
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

kgallagh@digi.lonestar.org (Kevin Gallagher) (05/23/91)

A new enhanced version of the EDT emulation within GNU Emacs is ready for beta
testing.  It is a fairly close emulation with lots of extras.  Anyone
interested in participating should send me email as soon as possible (please
do NOT post such requests).  In a week or two I will notify everyone who
volunteers if they are to be part of the beta test.  I expect the beta test
period to last two or three months.

I hope to get a good cross section of users on many different platforms with
many different terminals.  The emulation package currently supports VT100
series, VT200 series, and VT300 series terminals.  In addition, we provide
support for Apollo Workstations using the Low Profile II keyboard and Emacs
version 18.54 and above.  We must rely on beta testers to help us generate
support for other terminals.  So I am particularly interested in testers
familiar with the programming requirements of the terminals they use and who
have at least some understanding of Emacs Lisp.  But this is not a
requirement. 

We have tested the package on Apollo Workstations under SR10.2 and SR10.3 and
on a VAX running VMS 5.3.

In you decide to volunteer, please be sure to identify the hardware
platform(s), operating system(s), and terminal(s) you are using.

Here are some selected highlights to be found in the new emulation:

1.  The EDT define key command is supported.  The TPU/EVE learn command is
    supported.  We also supply a restore key command which will restore the
    last replaced definition to a key.

2.  Direction support is fully supported.  It is no longer accomplished by
    re-defining keys each time the direction is changed.  Thus, commands
    sensitive to the current direction setting may be bound easily to any key.

3.  ALL original emacs bindings are fully restored when EDT emulation is
    turned off.

4.  User custom EDT bindings are kept separate from the default EDT bindings.
    One can toggle back and forth between the custom EDT bindings and default
    EDT bindings.

5.  The Emacs functions in edt.el attempt to emulate, where practical,
    the exact behavior of the corresponding EDT keypad mode commands.  In a
    few cases, the emulation is not exact, but we expect you will agree it is
    close enough.  

6.  EDT defaults a section size to be 16 lines of its one and only 24-line
    window.  That's two-thirds of the window at a time.  The SECT emulation
    moves the cursor two-thirds of the current window size.  (There is also an 
    edt-scroll-window function which you may prefer over the SECT emulation.) 

7.  Cursor movement and deletion involving word entities is identical to EDT
    except for its treatment of TABs.  EDT treats each TAB as an individual
    word.  Emacs treats them as whitespace, as does this EDT emulation.  (This
    was a simple judgment call that can be easily changed if the demand is
    there.  We are also considering providing support of user specification of
    a set of word delimiter characters.)

8.  EDT's FIND and FNDNXT are supported.

9.  EDT's APPEND and REPLACE commands are supported.

10. Form feed and tab insert commands are supported.

11. The TPU/EVE Retangular Cut and Paste in both insert and overwrite modes is
    supported. 

12. The original EDT emulation package set up many default regular and GOLD
    bindings.  We tried to preserve most of these, so users of the original
    emulation package will feel more at home.  

13. The VT200 and VT300 series terminals have no ESC, BS, nor LF keys, as does
    a VT100.  So the default EDT bindings adopt the standard DEC convention of
    interpreting F11 as ESC, F12 as BS, and F13 as LF on these terminals.