🚀 go-pugleaf

I once did a lot of work in the IBM mainframe world and I found REXX a
wonderful improvement on what came before, but I still found it much
less convenient to use for complex editing than EMACS keyboard macros
and of course far less powerful than a real programming language.

After getting all my initial training in Pascal, I found LISP a little
"counter-intuitive" and difficult at first, but with a bit of exposure
I now agree that is the all-around most consistent and powerful lang-
uage I know.  The escape conventions of C/ELISP seemed strange to me
at first, too, but they are also perfectly consistent and understand-
able with few rules (as all language constructs should be -- we
programmers have weak minds).

The LISP Machine programmers (LISP lovers all) tried using LISP as
their command language and found that it was more convenient in
day-to-day usage to have a normal command syntax, so making ELISP
replace the UNIX shell would be a bad idea.

Finally, EMACS has picked up many ideas from other editors, such as
rulers, rectangular regions, adjusting mark points, and many more.
Because of its extensibility and openness, if you have a good idea
about how it can pick up more good features, you can add them!

-- Ethan (ethanb@milton.u.washington.edu)