[comp.os.vms] VMS GNU Emacs

bal%va.DECnet@NRL3.ARPA ("VA::BAL") (07/21/87)

Reply-To: bal%va.decnet@nrl.arpa
Full-Name: Brian A. LaMacchia
Address: Code 4771, Naval Reserach Laboratory
Address: 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington, DC  20375-5000
Phone: (202) 767-3066


>The first problem is that GNU EMACS doesn't even attempt to load the
>TERM/VT102.EL file when run, despite what the documentation says.  In
>fact, even if the terminal type is VT100, it doesn't load the same
>VT100.EL file.  According to the docs, the STARTUP.EL file should look
>for the appropriate terminal dependent file and load it, if it exists,
>from the TERM subdir of the LISP dir.  Nothing.

You're absolutely right.  The fragment of code that is supposed to load
the term file is:

    (and term-file-prefix (not noninteractive)
	 (load (if window-system
		   (concat term-file-prefix
			   (symbol-name window-system)
			   "-win")
		   (concat term-file-prefix
			   (substring (getenv "TERM") 0
				      (string-match "-" (getenv "TERM")))))
	       t t))

The "load" function searches for the proper terminal file in all of the
directories in the list "load-path".  By default, load-path contains
only the value "emacs_library:[lisp]"  Thus (assuming window-system is
nil), you get the above is equivalent to:

(load (concat term-file-prefix "vt102"))

By default (path.el) term-file-prefix is set to "term/".  Thus the above
sexp is equivalent to:

(load "term/vt102")

Now, emacs goes and looks for the file:

"emacs_library:[lisp]term/vt102.el"

and fails.  For some reason, emacs doesn't change [lisp]term to
[lisp.term].  Since the load function was given the optional third
argument, you don't see the failure message.

What can you do to work around this?  This simplest things to do is to
add the line:

(setq term-file-prefix "[.term]") 

to your site-init.el file (and rebuild emacs).  Or, if you don't want to
change the parameters for the site, you can add:

(setq term-file-prefix "[.term]")
(load ...)

to you own .emacs startup file.  This will make the change for you but
not for all emacs users.

Hope this helps.

				--Brian LaMacchia
				  bal%va.decnet@nrl.arpa (current)
				  balamac@athena.mit.edu
------

strong@WPAFB-AMS1.ARPA (08/10/87)

Has someone assembled a BACKUP saveset of GNU Emacs?  I read the
distribution stuff on mit-prep, but it seems to require tar to
unpack it.  I don't have tar or easy access to a unix system.
If there is an easier way to get GNU emacs onto a VMS machine,
please let me know.  I would prefer anonymous ftp of a backup
saveset.  

Please, no flames on files I should have read or why I should have
tar.  Any help is appreciated.

Gordon <Strong@WPAFB-AMS1.ARPA>
------

bal%va.DECnet@NRL3.ARPA ("VA::BAL") (08/11/87)

Reply-To: bal%va.decnet@nrl.arpa
Full-Name: Brian A. LaMacchia
Address: Code 4771, Naval Research Laboratory
Address: 4555 Overlook Ave. SW, Washington, DC  20375-5000
Phone: (202) 767-3066

>Has someone assembled a BACKUP saveset of GNU Emacs?  I read the
>distribution stuff on mit-prep, but it seems to require tar to
>unpack it.  I don't have tar or easy access to a unix system.
>If there is an easier way to get GNU emacs onto a VMS machine,
>please let me know.  I would prefer anonymous ftp of a backup
>saveset.  

Sid Penstone (Penstone@qucdnee1.bitnet) wrote a Tar->VMS program that
works great with the GNU Emacs distribution from prep.ai.mit.edu.  I
ftp'd the dist18.47-tar file from prep and ran it through tar2vms
without problems.  Sid also wrote a VMS->Tar program (for those of you
going to Unix machines).

If you'd like the source code for either of these (both programs written
in C) send me a message.  If there's sufficient demand I'll post both to
the net.

				--Brian LaMacchia
				  bal%va.decnet@nrl.arpa (until 9-1-87)
				  balamac@athena.mit.edu
------