[comp.emacs] C/Lisp--compiled/interpreted?

ian@sibyl.eleceng.ua.OZ (Ian Dall) (04/18/91)

In article <1991Apr15.202734.5556@midway.uchicago.edu> ab2r@quads.uchicago.edu (Marshall Abrams) writes:
>
>Yeah, some of us prefer Lisp, but most people seem to like C.  But for
>the purpose of running on a slow machine, a compiled extension
>language is essential.

Ah, but GNU emacs has both! Haven't you noticed what language GNU
emacs is written in? Note that GNU emacs has it's lisp primitives
written in C, but it also has quite a lot of higher level functions
written in C for efficiency. There are even macros to make your C
look a bit lispish!

Every now and then someone creates extensions which involve changes to
the C code as well as changes to the lisp code. Usually the C changes
die out after a few new releases. I guess it is too much trouble to
keep track.

If your extra C is only doing something that could be done in lisp
anyway, the interface with the rest of emacs is pretty simple, and all
your changes can be confined to one new file. All the distributed
stuff could be put in a library to speed up recompilations.


-- 
Ian Dall          I'm not into isms, but hedonism is the most
                  harmless I can think of. -- Phillip Adams
  ACSnet: ian@sibyl.eleceng.ua.oz
internet: ian@sibyl.eleceng.ua.oz.au