>AOLserver itself is a very clean piece of code. I know it sucks to say,
>read the code, but in this case, the code, emacs, a tag file, and the
>various communities can get you pretty far.
Earlier someone asked what a tag file is.... (I apologize, I took my
system down to replace some components and came back up to discover my MX
provider had changed servers without notifying me....)
Basically tag tables are a typically a project specific description of the
files and entrypoints that make up a software in the project. Generated by
etags, tag tables are used by emacs as a source of project metadata. It
enables the user to go directly to the source of a function, procedure, or
method. It enables the user to search through all the files in a project
for some specific string.
It's part of the 80% solution that makes emacs into an IDE. Folks have
used etags and some regular expression strings to support LISP, C, Tcl, Tcl
with ACS extensions, and PL/SQL. And many other languages I am sure.
Here's what emacs has to say about the subject:
> A "tags table" is a description of how a multi-file program is
>broken up into files. It lists the names of the component files and the
>names and positions of the functions (or other named subunits) in each
>file. Grouping the related files makes it possible to search or replace
>through all the files with one command. Recording the function names
>and positions makes possible the `M-.' command which finds the
>definition of a function by looking up which of the files it is in.
>
> Tags tables are stored in files called "tags table files". The
>conventional name for a tags table file is `TAGS'.
>
> Each entry in the tags table records the name of one tag, the name
>of the file that the tag is defined in (implicitly), and the position
>in that file of the tag's definition.
>
> Just what names from the described files are recorded in the tags
>table depends on the programming language of the described file. They
>normally include all functions and subroutines, and may also include
>global variables, data types, and anything else convenient. Each name
>recorded is called a "tag".
Enjoy,
Jerry
=====================================================
Jerry Asher [EMAIL PROTECTED]
1678 Shattuck Avenue Suite 161 Tel: (510) 549-2980
Berkeley, CA 94709 Fax: (877) 311-8688
