From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: redisplay system of emacs Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:28 -0500 Message-ID: References: <27349166.post@talk.nabble.com> <83bpge50k5.fsf@gnu.org> <87vdem8gly.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <87k4v1xm4l.fsf@gmail.com> <83sk9prvnd.fsf@gnu.org> <87k4v1vz5f.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1264790147 32260 80.91.229.12 (29 Jan 2010 18:35:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:35:47 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Eli Zaretskii , Emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Paul R Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jan 29 19:35:44 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Navh2-0005rl-25 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:35:44 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:49934 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Navh1-0004ob-7y for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:43 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Navgw-0004np-4p for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:38 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Navgr-0004kU-KU for Emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:37 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=51342 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Navgr-0004kM-Hg for Emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:33 -0500 Original-Received: from chene.dit.umontreal.ca ([132.204.246.20]:52390) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Navgp-0003vR-Gc; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:31 -0500 Original-Received: from faina.iro.umontreal.ca (faina.iro.umontreal.ca [132.204.26.177]) by chene.dit.umontreal.ca (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id o0TIZSWZ008008; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:28 -0500 Original-Received: by faina.iro.umontreal.ca (Postfix, from userid 20848) id AEEA63A7A3; Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:28 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <87k4v1vz5f.fsf@gmail.com> (Paul R.'s message of "Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:06:20 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.91 (gnu/linux) X-NAI-Spam-Score: 0 X-NAI-Spam-Rules: 1 Rules triggered RV3459=0 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:120665 Archived-At: Eli> That's a pretty general assessment. Any data points other than the Eli> display engine? Most of what Emacs's code offers is available elsewhere one way or another in *apparently* better shape and with an active community. That's true of the redisplay as we've been discussing, it's true of the extension language, the GC, the coding-conversion libraries, the wiget/menu code, and probably a lot more. So, yes, it's probably fairly easy to do an Emacs-like editor using another extension language etc... and the result is likely to be cleaner, more efficient, better maintained code in many ways. Actually such Emacs-like editors exist, using extension languages like CommonLisp, OCaml, Haskell, Python, younameit. The problem is that they're not Emacs, so they start with a small user community and it's hard for them to grow. At some point, I've considered the possibility to switch to one of those (where the extension language is statically typed ;-), but ... they didn't have PCL-CVS, diff-mode, Gnus, ... so it was really an uphill battle. Maybe later. Stefan