knudsen@cbnewsd.att.com (michael.j.knudsen) (02/02/91)
I've been using Umacs, Microware's proprietary version of the PD editor UEmacs, pretty heavily lately and have some questions and gripes. It's enough like real (U**X) Emacs to be both easy and a hazard to use. I can fix most of that with a key-binding .umacsrc file, but some questions and complaints are: (1) Is there any way to search-and-replace a given string with NOTHING? As it is, you have to enter at least one character at the "replace with" prompt, or it defaults to the previously-used prompt. I love that memory of the previous new-string (lacking in real Emacs), but how can I just delete all occurences of some string without leaving at least a SPACE or some such thing in their place? (2) The delete-word (M-D and M-^H) commands have some *weird* notions of what constitutes a "word" -- seems that periods, dashes, and other punctuation chars get wiped out along with letters and digits. Maybe it's based on OSK file names, or what? Anyway, it's rough on C structure expressions. (3) When creating/editing a .umacsrc or other command file, should control characters be entered as themselves (using the M-Q "quote" trick), or spelled out as a circumflex (^) then the letter? And are meta-char sequences spelled out M - letter? (Such obvious question, too obvious for the manual writers to think of -- I too have written manuals and left out the really "dumb" questions that "everybody" knows :-) (4) Is there any way to change to another buffer by name and not have to hit ^X1 to get rid of that split screen? Besides just using ^X^F with the existing file name, which I do now? Or the previous and next buffer commands? (5) When changing buffers by using ^X^F, I found that Umacs is case-sensitive in file names! I was editing MakeFile, tried to go back to it later as Makefile, and got the same file read into a new buffer! Real Emacs gives the buffers numbers for names, which makes for fast swapping with less typing and typos. (6) How come the ^X^B buffer-status command tells you everything about your Aunt May's hernia operation, but not whether each buffer is currently up-to-date on disk? (7) When you try to exit with ^X^C and some buffers are not up to date, it would be nice if Umacs would ask you "do you want to write" for *each buffer* by name, instead of just all-or-none. Especially since (6) doesn't let me review the buffers' status before exiting. (8) On the plus side, Umacs is fast and not *seriously* buggy in the sense of crashing the system, disappearing files, etc. And it lets you use REAL TABS (unlike Dynastar) and redefine their size on the fly. And the added paragraph-formatting commands make it serious competition to Dynastar for word processing. -- "Our trained, courteous staff of Patriot operators is waiting for your reply."
blarson@blars (02/03/91)
As an alternative to umacs, you can get mg 2a via ftp from snow.white.toronto.edu and change anything you don't like about it. (I'm not a umacs user, so I can't compare them well. Mg does not have some of the problems you mentioned.) -- blarson@usc.edu C news and rn for os9/68k! -- Bob Larson (blars) blarson@usc.edu usc!blarson Hiding differences does not make them go away. Accepting differences makes them unimportant.
bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) (02/05/91)
In article <1991Feb1.231404.14812@cbnewsd.att.com> knudsen@cbnewsd.att.com (michael.j.knudsen) writes: >I've been using Umacs, Microware's proprietary version of the PD >editor UEmacs, pretty heavily lately and have some questions and >gripes... > >(1) Is there any way to search-and-replace a given string with NOTHING? I've done some experimentation here, and I don't believe that in umacs it is possible. In MicroEmacs 3.9 or 3.10 you can use the command "set $replace" in a macro or command file and it will clear the replace string. Umacs (which is based on MicroEmacs 3.6) doesn't appear to have the "set" command implemented. >(3) When creating/editing a .umacsrc or other command file, >should control characters be entered as themselves (using the M-Q >"quote" trick), or spelled out as a circumflex (^) then the letter? In command files the keys should be specified with the textual equivalents - that is, use the "^" and "M-" strings followed by the key. Don't type the actual key. >(4) Is there any way to change to another buffer by name and not >have to hit ^X1 to get rid of that split screen? ^XB (select-buffer) will allow you to go to another buffer, but the split screen is an entirely separate issue. If you have a split screen your current window will go to the new buffer, but the other window(s) will remain where they are. >(5) When changing buffers by using ^X^F, I found that Umacs is >case-sensitive in file names! I was editing MakeFile, tried to go >back to it later as Makefile, and got the same file read into a new buffer! True - you must be careful with this. If you have one buffer MakeFile and one buffer Makefile, if you exit with M-Z one of the buffers will overwrite the other (if you have the filenames equal to the buffer names) since OS-9 is not case sensitive w.r.t. filenames. [various desired features deleted] >(8) On the plus side, Umacs is fast and not *seriously* buggy in >the sense of crashing the system, disappearing files, etc... You may want to find MicroEmacs 3.9 or 3.10 for OS-9 (TOPS and other sources have them). Source is included so you can add the features you want, and the command language is substantially more flexible. It's kind of fun tracing through the code, I've never seen more modular programming (though with as many people as have made modifications, it's amazing that one can even trace through it and figure out what's going on...). -- ################################################################################ # Bill Sheppard -- bills@microware.com -- {uunet,sun}!mcrware!mwca!bill # # Microware Systems Corporation --- OS-9: Seven generations beyond __/_!! # #######Opinions expressed are my own, though you'd be wise to adopt them!#######