geert@ele.tue.nl (Geert Janssen) (07/26/89)
Dear Emacs Lovers on HP Machines,
A couple of years ago I made a port of GNU Emacs (version 17.something)
to our Hewlett-Packard HP9000/Series 500 machines. It wasn't an easy job,
since the machine contains proprietary stack processors, quite unlike any
common processor like the 68000 based workstations. Moreover, the HP-UX
operating system is a weird mixture of Sys5 and Berkeley UNIX features.
Not surprising then that once this was announced a number of people wrote me
for a copy, which I supplied freely.
Alas, nothing lasts in this world. So when our machines were replaced by the
newer Series 800 (Precision Architecture) ones, I was once again confronted
with the problem of getting my HP-Emacs running on those new monsters.
Fortunately, that turned out to be an easy job, because the HP designers were
kind enough to supply a libBSD.a and libPW.a library, where all I needed was
prepared. Therefore, my renewed announcement:
People (no matter what organisation they belong to) that are interested in a
copy of HP-Emacs (details to be found below) are hereby invited to write to
me. Applications should contain a blank HP formatted cartridge tape, a
properly addressed return envelope or address label, some money, money order,
cheque, stamps, or whatever to cover for the postage costs. My address is:
G.L.J.M. Janssen
Dept. Electrical Engineering, Room EH 7.27
Technical University Eindhoven
Den Dolech 2
P.O. Box 513
5600 MB Eindhoven
The Netherlands
The total amount of data I then send you is about 8 MBytes.
Be aware that this HP-Emacs is NOT GNU Emacs, although based on it. Conditions
of copying are the same as expressed in the GNU Emacs distribution. All I
require is that you leave my copyright notice untouched; Since I don't get any
money for the contributions I made, at least I want some of the fame!
I like the following points to be perfectly clear to anyone that acquires
a distribution of my HP-Emacs:
1) I do NOT consider myself an Emacs distributor. The official man to deal
with is Richard Stallman I suppose. Since he knows of my efforts to get
Emacs going on HP-UX I guess he will not object that I occasionally supply
a copy of HP-Emacs to someone interested, like you. However, be aware that
my HP-Emacs is substantially different from the original GNU-Emacs.
2) My principle interest in Emacs is its underlying Lisp system. At my
department only a few people (mostly students working for me) use Emacs as
a text-editor. The rest is still hooked on 'vi'. My aim is to build a
substantial CommonLisp subset interpreter, which we nicknamed HotLisp.
Thereby we use the Emacs Lisp (Elisp) as an example and test-bed.
3) This version of HP-Emacs is intended to run on HP9000 Series 500 systems
with a HP-UX 5.x version of operating system.
Since 26 July 1989 it also runs on HP 9000/Series 800 computers.
4) HP-Emacs is based on the GNU-Emacs version 16 as distributed on the
so-called Copenhagen tape by EUUG. I do not intend to keep both programs
compatible, i.e. new releases of GNU-Emacs (version 18 is out) will not
reinitiate new releases of HP-Emacs, apart from extensions to the GNU-Lisp
code perhaps.
5) My line of work is CAD for VLSI. Playing around with Emacs is merely a
hobby. So I hope you understand that I can only spend little time on
helping other people. My motto is:
IF I CAN DO IT, SO WHY CAN'T YOU ?
So don't be afraid to do some code reading. In fact the most I know
of C-programming comes from reading Emacs source and trying to guess what
it does. My background is Algol and Pascal programming, my future is Lisp.
6) I definitely do NOT take any responsibility for malfunctioning or failure
of any copy of the HP-Emacs version supplied by me. I do however require
that my copyright notice be preserved in all distributions, together with
any previously stated notices by others therein.
By the way, GNU Emacs runs also on HP9000/S800 machines. So if you're used to
that, I advice stick to it and don't bother me.
Please don't reply by scolding at me for bringing yet another Emacs in the
world. I have heard that one before, can do without repetition. I like my
HP-Emacs, and I know of some people that equally prefer it. For one, the code
is cleaner, the documentation better and the ELisp more Common Lisp-like.
It's also smaller in size (500 k on s800).
GNU Hackers that read this might wonder why I don't contribute directly to the
GNU Software pool. Well I did try, in fact I took an cartridge tape to
Stallman on my last US trip. However, he didn't have access to a cartridge
unit to read it in, or he just wasn't interested, I wouldn't know. So if they
want it, they now can send me a tape. I am sure that my "corrected" code could
be useful to them. Eventually this would then lead to a better/nicer/cleaner/
faster/... GNU Emacs version.
That's all folks. Thanks for your interest!fkittred@bbn.com (Fletcher Kittredge) (07/27/89)
I just want to point out that the current version 18 of GNU Emacs runs very well on HP-UX 9000 series 300 and 800 computers. Version 18 includes many features, such as support for the X Window System, which were not in version 16. regards, fletcher Fletcher E. Kittredge fkittred@bbn.com