RALPHW%mit-xx@sri-unix.UUCP (11/06/83)
From: Ralph W. Hyre Jr. <RALPHW@mit-xx> Michael Lease (mlease@bbn-unix) and I (ralphw@mit-xx) are starting development of a Pascal Emacs. The target machine is an Apple ][ running Apple Pascal 1.1, but we would like to keep it transportable. Any suggestions or offers of help would be greatly appreciated. - Ralph Hyre -------
POURNE%mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP (11/11/83)
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE@mit-mc> Are you writing an EMACS in Pascal, or what? In any case, I suggest you try for "clean" Pascal, as this will make your product compatible with Pascal/M and MT+; this will get you on to CP/M and CP/M-86 as well as PC-DOS. The features to watch out for: 1) naughty bit manipulations. 2) SCAN -- this procedure is very dangerous, as it has *N*O* type checking! 3) Other un-standard Pascal prox and funx. String handling is is kosher; these are compatible from SCUD Pascal to MT+. 4) File handling based too harshly on UCSD. The SCUD file-handler was written in too short a time by a pair of overworked undergrads; it's not very universall. 5) Be Modular -- or Be Modula (our current language flame.) Good luck. -Alex Pournelle
andree@uokvax.UUCP (11/20/83)
#R:sri-arpa:-1336100:uokvax:3400010:000:1023 uokvax!andree Nov 9 06:39:00 1983 Emacs in Pascal? How much of Emacs? All? Most? Enough to make you happy? First, I want to say that what makes Emacs EMACS (to me, anyway) is the slick hook in the command processor. Emacs (the one I used to use) has LOTS of commands, known by nice long names. Normally, you bound them to keystrokes so you did't have to type things like `forward-character' to move the cursor. The ability to add new commands (and new bindings!) at run time is an integral part of this. As such, you almost certainly can't do a full Emacs in Pascal. Many people have tried and floundered; they usually wound up writing an interpreter to write the command processor in. These interpreters have an uncanny habit of looking like LISP (though you might be able to do it in FORTH.) If you try to stick with Pascal, you'll probably wind up with something like Mince or TED. So, to the point: You ought to decide how much of EMACS you want to impliment, and THEN worry about the design issues. They will affect you greatly. Much Luck, <mike