> However, in a little of the discussion I've since seen, I think the > problem is that a lot of folks want some pieces of what Emacs gives > them, but we all want different pieces.
Yes. I think of the problem as providing 'beans' for other people to use. Maybe pida has found a way to package those beans? > I want to be able to script my editor in python, not lisp, so that needs > to be possible (and convenient, and clean). Can you write a python > wrapper for elisp that will feel like python? Something like callElispFunctionByName(name-of-elisp-function) ? Iirc, pymacs does a pretty good job of handing conversion of arguments. Ali's offer to support pymacs is most welcome in this context. > the other thing I want that > is different from emacs is a UI that conforms to modern GUI conventions > -- I spend much of my day in my code editor, but the rest of it in other > apps that all use the same keystrokes for the basic stuff like copy, > cut, paste, etc -- I want my editor to be the same as that. I also want > to be able to get at things I use less frequently with menus, toolbars, > etc. Somehow it just feels wrong to use Emacs on a Macintosh, so I never > have. > > Emacs does support custom key bindings, so there is no real reason one > couldn't do a full re-map to a different paradigm, but I think you'd > break a lot of extensions in the process, and the extensions are the > real reason I use emacs. (actually Xemacs, but the point is the same). Really? I don't know enough about Emacs to say for sure, but does the viper (vim) plugin break all other Emacs extensions? That's hard to believe. > > In other words, suppose we could access all of Emacs *itself* from > > Python. Would that be sufficient? > > Maybe -- if there was total access -- but is this really easier than > building something on STC and other existing python modules? My experience is that trying to duplicate Emacs's functionality requires more than a year of work, regardless of what tools one starts with. In particular, Emacs has hundreds of commands to support all the items on Robin's list. True, most commands are fairly easy to do, but the job remains daunting. Furthermore, implementing the minibuffer itself takes a lot of work. And what did I get when I finished this year of work? Lots of commands that are kinda like Emacs, but which were less tested and (in many cases) less well thought out. Edward
