🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct26.005345.1@cc.curtin.edu.au>, zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au
(Paul Repacholi) writes:

|>In article <1992Oct20.180456.19707@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>,
|>blanchad@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (BLANCHARD DAVID OWEN) writes:
|>> In article <1bvk1iINNeth@cascade.ens.tek.com> gush@cascade.ens.tek.com (Gus
|>Hellman) writes:
|>>>
|>>>  We have some VMS users moving to Unix boxes that do not want to learn
|>Unix
|>>>style editors. Does anyone know of a version of edt, for example, that runs
|>>>under unix?
|>>>
|>>>  Any pointers would be appreciated.
|>>>
|>
|>Put Emacs on the Vax. It works even better on unix though :-(. Emacs info
|>is good enoufg to get a complete novice off and running.

No it isn't.

All your new users will end up stuck in the editor unable to get out. Unless you
are prepared to put time and effort into printing out the documentation and
setting up the terminal interface properly then they will be unable to use the
edt emulation mode.


|>> I know of two EDT emulators for Unix platforms.  Cost is per person and
|>> they both run about $500 for a 2-person license, $900 for 4, $1700 for
|>> 8, etc.
|>> 
|>
|>There is an EDT mode in Emacs...

It isn't a substitute for edt. The edt "emulation" is just one persons hack
which merges the features of edt with those of emacs. It was not designed as a
straigt copy and cannot be used as such.

The problem with emacs is that a considerable effort must be put into getting
the thing up and running by the support staff. I get very fed up with the smug
"go and find it out from info" attitude of many emacs hackers. My main
difficulty with emacs is trying to get out of the buffer modes and in particular
how to get out of the damn program. There are scores of new users who get
themselves trapped in the help facility and are unable to get out.

In short emacs is not an easy editor to learn. Although it has many nice
features and beats any other UNIX editor, in my view brief and LSE beat it on
consistency and ease of use.

Since and editor is the main tool a programmer uses it should be accepted that
each individual has the right to have a say in the choice of editor. I would go
so far as to say that the costs of learning another editor are just not
ecconomic if there is a purchasable alternative. Just because the system manager
uses emacs does not mean that they should force everyone else to do so.

$500 is about what it costs to employ a programmer for one and a half days. I
doubt that anyone with five or so years of edt experience could become as
proficient in emacs in that time.

If you are getting DECstations then the FUSE toolset comes with LSE (ie EDT's
big brother). There is also a separate DEC TPU about, since DECdecision and a
lot of the VAX stuff is layered on TPU they had to make the port to UNIX
anyway.

--

Phill Hallam-Baker