Suggestions for a Basic Un*x Editor : SUMMARY (long

[QQ11 at LIVERPOOL.AC.UK]

This is a summary of replies to the question:

    I am currently involved in looking at possible editors for a Un*x service
    in a research and teaching environment. The primary requirements are:

    o Full screen
    o Must work on a wide variety of platforms
    o Very useful if a version works on PC/MS-DOS
    o Must work with industry standard terminals/emulations
    o Must be easy to learn, especially for those with no computer background
    o site licence arrangements reasonable

    I would  like to hear from those sites who may have moved to  Un*x from
    something  fundamentally  different, especially academic sites.  Other
    objective views would  be appreciated as well. In addition, I would like
    to hear from anyone who has done a comparative study of un*x editors.

    I would be interested to hear views on what core functions an editor
    should offer. What does the person want who primarily goes though the
    compile-->load-->execute-->edit cycle, for example?

A supplementary question on commercial versions of Emacs was also posted.

I would like to thank the many people who replied to my original posting
and apologise for taking so long about the summary (there were a large
number of replies).

It was not practical or sensible to say which one came out best although
GNU-Emacs was recommended by quite a few. This may just mean that users
of other editors don't read news.....

I have tried to glean the important comments/features from each item. You
will notice that there are some contradictory statements. This is
deliberate, since some people while saying that a particular editor was
good admitted that it wasn't perfect.If your favourite editor was not
mentioned, perhaps that's because you didn't tell me about it....
I've had to paraphrase/edit some replies to keep things concise. No flames
please if your views have not appeared verbatim.

The editors covered in the replies were:

    o vi
    Offers power and convenience
    Existing, supported, standard
    Possible to get by with subset of commands
    Available for MS-DOS (PD=stevie, elvis; commercial=MKS vi)
    Works well on slow speed lines
    Relatively easy to learn for some
    Relatively small and fast
    Can run under VMS
    Tag searching in multi-file programs
    Search and replace functions excellent
    No multiple window support and auto compile features
    Modal nature confusing to beginners
    The learning curve is a bit steep.

    o ded
    No cost, source available.
    Popular at some UK sites
    Not very portable
    Requires own keyboard files (termcap on its own not enough)
    Not very robust (more than one comment about this)
    Heavily hacked and thus different at each site.

    o GNU-Emacs
    Offers power and convenience
    No Cost and source available.
    Fun to learn
    Provides total working Environment
    Continually extended by users
    Available for large number of un*x platforms
    Full blown extension language (dialect of Lisp)
    Easy to learn though difficult to master
    Can run a shell in a window
    Automatic make and hooks for source code control (via SCCS).
    Runs on VMS as well
    Supports other non editing functions such as news and mail reading
    Supports language sensitive editing and formatting functions.
    Works directly with X server
    Tag searching in multi-file programs
    Support base from experienced users
    Support for un*x debuggers
    Supports wide range of user experience
    Undo useful but problems when stored 'undo' information exhausted
    Too large for small overused machines
    No simple search command
    Problems with C-h mapping to delete on some hardware
    Use of keys hampers some quick typists
    Many operations not reversible
    Often difficult for beginners

    o Jove
    No Cost, source available
    Also runs under MS-DOS
    Subset of GNU Emacs therefore can be used as GNU subset on
        smaller machines.
    Tag searching in multi-file programs
    teachjove facility useful (= modified GNU tutorial)
    Supports 'make'
    Available for Macs
    Quick startup
    Can run a shell in a window

    o MicroEMACS
    Macro Language
    No Cost, source available
    Also runs under MS-DOS
    Widely available
    Easy to customise
    Fast and efficient, but not simple
    Available also on VMS, Atari ST, mac, amiga
    Large user base
    Whole file is kept in memory

    o mg
    Portable, small, significant subset of GNU-Emacs

    o epsilon
    Commercial version of emacs for MS-DOS, un*x and OS/2
    Can be configured to look like full emacs
    Fully programmable (C like language )
    Good manual
    Can run make in the 'background' under DOS

    o Crisp/brief
    Crisp is the un*x clone of the PC editor brief (ver 2)
    Source available from uunet
    User friendly
    Macro language
    Requires own keyboard files (termcap on its own not enough)

    o Unipress Emacs
    Commercial Emacs
    Can run a shell in a window
    Too large for some situations

    o curlew (University of Newcastle UK)
    'no frills' editor
    No cost.
    Best when using SSMP protocol (UK)
    Slow compared to vi

    o Screen-based ed (Nottingham University (UK) Maths department)
    Full screen
    Portable
    Easy to learn
    Requires AT&T Source Licence (although code could be replaced)

    o Word Perfect
    Version 5.0 available for un*x and MS-DOS

    o General Points
    Problems using cursor keys over networks due to timing problems.
    Must be quick to start, have no startup screens menus, must have
       split screens, easy/fast search commands