info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (05/24/85)
From: Chris Yoder <engvax!CHRIS@cit-vax>
Speaking as an experienced Pascal programmer who has had occasion to use
LSE, and who has used a language sensitive editor extensively, I can tell you
that a language sensitive editor is not only *extreemely* helpful in terms of
helping one remember syntax for statements that aren't used often (some of us
are *SO* lazy that we don't like to get up out of our chairs, find the manual
which is lost somewhere in the office, figure out where to look up the syntax of
the statement, hide the manual so that everyone else in the office can't find
it, and go back to hacking when we could just hit a sequence of control keys),
it's also fantasticly good at helping one keep a program readable in terms of
style (very important as things get large). A language sensitive editor also
makes learning new languages *much* easier. Of course, you will more than likely
not like formating that comes standard with the editor, but with LSE that isn't
a problem because you can redefine and extend the formating easily.
Like command recall, until you have used a language sensitive editor you
don't know what you're missing, and once you do you'll never want to go back to
an editor that doesn't know your favorite laguage (or text pre-processing
program) that is, if you get a decent language sensitive editor... From what
I've seen, I rather like LSE, but I've found that editors, like computer
languages, tend to gather a following of devout believers, and a following of
people who pour their derision upon it, so I won't go as far as to say that it's
the best editor around (I refuse to start an editor war!). I will say that if
you like EDT, you'll *love* LSE (you'll also bitch because it doesn't do
absolutely everything just exactly the way that you want it, but to get that
you'll have to write your own editor).
-- Chris Yoder
UUCP --- {allegra|ihnp4}scgvaxd!engvax!chris
ARPA --- engvax!chris@cit-vax.ARPA
<Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you...>