gaynor@topaz.rutgers.edu (Silver) (10/08/87)
...but nonetheless, here is the summary. First, here's a copy of the original article. > I'm looking for some of the Ins and Outs of using Emacs full-time-ish > as a shell. Should I consider making it my login shell? Why? Why > not? What kind of neat things can I do interactively with Emacs as my > environment? How well am I going to interface with the rest of my 4.3 > BSD Unix (tm, I guess) system? > > Reply by email, and I'll post a good summarization. > > Thanks, > Silver The responses so few that I include them in their entirety. From their sparseness, I guess that nobody uses emacs as their shell... From mly@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Mlynarik) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I find Emacs quite acceptable to use as a login shell. The emacs terminal emulator (m-x terminal-emulator) may be used when one needs to run ``display'' programs. (This isn't often necessary, since un*x' and most un*x programs' model of an input device is at best an asr33. Un*x: Putting yesterday in the future today.) The only problem is that Emacs expects the terminal type to be setup when it is invoked and some ways of logging in to un*x systems (eg telnet) do not preset the terminal type. I always use SUPDUP, so this never bothers me. From: abbottj@csv.rpi.edu (John Abbott) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Using GNUemacs as a login shell is unbeneficial to rcp and rsh commands. From: uunet!steinmetz!nieh (nico nieh) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't use GNU-Emacs in my login shell, since GNU-Emacs uses too much resources. On VAX/VMS, I can not run VAX-LISP within GNU-EMACS. In my environment the paging file quota is set to 10,000. On Sun/BSD4.3, I can not run Verdix-Ada compiler within GNU-Emacs. As I mentioned in my previous article, we put 10,000 lines of e-lisp code for a prototype system. It requires 13,000 paging files (VAX/VMS) to start with. My point is GNU-Emacs is very powerful, but it requires too much system resources. I only talk about GNU-Emacs. Other implementation of EMACS are not as good as GNU-EMACS, especially the capability of E-LISP. As long as your work does not requires too much system resource and your system is not heavily loaded, you could put GNU-EMACS as your login shell. I believe in the near future you will see an emacs-like shell (on UNIX) which has the following features: (1) multiple window, multiple buffer, (should have overlapped window) (2) interface to all system utilities (3) may interface to low level system services (using e-lisp) (4) interface to the network (5) customizable, user definable key bindings (6) allow program development within the evnironment (This feature will allow fast prototyping. Pieces of programs can be glued together quickly. I consider this feature is very important.) (7) mouse interface (8) may open graphices window (if terminal supports graphics) (9) text editing primitives The UNION of GNU-EMACS and sun-window system covers the above features. I believe it is the time to merge things together. If you think this is a useful information please post it. From: mcvax!ambush!kimcm@uunet.UU.NET ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In article <15239@topaz.rutgers.edu> you write: > [summary deleted] I'm not sure it's a good idea to make emacs be your login shell, for the following reasons: You'll lose all possibilities to set environment variables that you can use when running the shell. Remember there are programs which cannot be run directly in an emacs shell window. Instead I advice you to use your favorite shell (Csh, Bourne shell, Korn Shell, etc.) and set up your environment (Variables, functions, aliases, et al) and as the last thing in your startup procedure (.profile, .login, .whatever) call the emacs system. If you will not allow users to modify their startup procedure, you might consider the rsh (Restricted Shell - scaled down Bourne Shell). Regards Kim Chr. Madsen. LOOK! Regards, | Silver. \|/ V *********************************************************************** * LOOKING FOR ENTRY-LEVELISH C/LISP PROGRAMMING, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING * *********************************************************************** Andy Gaynor 201-545-0458 81 Hassart St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 gaynor@topaz.rutgers.edu ...!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!gaynor "There is no Editor but Emacs, and Lisp is its Prophet."