From: eighner AT io DOT com (Lars Eighner) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: emcAsc Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 05:08:22 -0600 Organization: Lars Eighner, Author Lines: 54 Message-ID: References: <199912022311 DOT SAA10245 AT delorie DOT com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dillinger.io.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: hiram.io.com 944316156 22051 199.170.88.20 (4 Dec 1999 14:02:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse AT io DOT com NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 Dec 1999 14:02:36 GMT X-Newsreader: Yarn 0.92 with YES 0.22 X-ISP: Illuminati Online X-Revision: 1 Originator: eighner AT dillinger-2 DOT io DOT com (Lars Eighner) To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com In our last episode <199912022311 DOT SAA10245 AT delorie DOT com>, the lovely and talented "Leon" broadcast on comp.os.msdos.djgpp: |> > was just wondering how the fact that Emacs was coded in lisp |interpreter |> > affects the speed of launching emacs and its ram needs? (as compared to |vim |> > for example) in particular with regards to old systems like 486 sx with |> > about 4 meg ram? |> |> Why wonder about that? It's a fact of life that Emacs *is* coded in |> Lisp, to a large portion. So even if that were the reason for it to be |> too slow to be useful, on that small machine, you'ld not be able to do |> anything about it, anyway. | |not true - i am in the process of deciding whether to use vim or emacs - so |if the situation would spell the very slow EMACS on a machine of interest - |then i would do something about it - ie use vim. I don't quite understand the problem here. The point of djgpp is that you are on a DOS or Windows machine. There must be a hundred DOS free or shareware editors that are much more powerful than either vim or emacs. The vim or emacs discussion makes sense if you are stuck in a uniod environment where applications are are few and far between and they all assume you are on a VT100 mono terminal with no function keys (but connected to a Cray with unlimited resources). Any editor that maps backspace to the help function (emacs) is simply out of place on a desktop with a 104+ keyboard. And a glorified line editor (like vim) is the sort of thing DOS left in the dust with the late and not-very-lamented edline. Emacs is an incredible resource hog because it was designed by grad students with access to mainframes. Vim has the singular distinction of being the most counter-intuitive editor in existence. Take your pick. (If you really are stuck in a unoid environment, get joe which can be customized to behave like a real editor.) If the applications existed for uniods, no one would run DOS, Windows, or djgpp. But they don't, and just about all the development for uniods seems directed at pouring resources down the bottomless X-windows pit. -- Lars Eighner 700 Hearn #101 Austin TX 78703 eighner AT io DOT com (512) 474-1920 (FAX answers 6th ring) http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/ bookstore: http://www.io.com/%7Eeighner/bookstore/ Be careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint. -- Mark Twain --