I've heard that the first implementation of Emacs was written in TECO (Jim Gosling?). There is a major operational paradigm shift between Emacs and TECO (as well as vi) --- keyboard mode. In TECO (and vi) you are in "enter" mode or "command mode". I personally seem incapable of accurately maintaining this single bit of mental state. Many of you know how badly you can screw up your file if you (1) rapidly touch type, and (2) forget you're in command mode. I always forget, and I type fast. Which makes these editors less than ideal, for me at least. Anyway, that's what always struck me about the (probably apocryphal) story of implementing Emacs in TECO: the massive attitude change! From the binary dichotomy of command/insert mode to just command mode (with many keys bound to "self-insert" command). TECO is even more powerful, keystroke for keystroke, than vi. I used it for about 3 months once. All of my neighbors lobbied hard to get me Emacs, just to reduce the blue fog in the air. At the time, the guy in the next cube was writing (from scratch) a version of Emacs in 8086 assembly. It worked, and was a great relief. -- bilker -- To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
