From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Robert Thorpe Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Why Emacs uses etags when all other editors use ctags? Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 01:43:56 +0000 Message-ID: <87a93q1u03.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1416188676 29485 80.91.229.3 (17 Nov 2014 01:44:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 01:44:36 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Andrey Lisin Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Nov 17 02:44:28 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XqBMf-0004z8-PW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 17 Nov 2014 02:44:25 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45745 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XqBMf-0007WM-DW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:44:25 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:39575) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XqBMN-0007WF-5C for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:44:15 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XqBME-0001Fu-Oh for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:44:07 -0500 Original-Received: from outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com ([81.17.249.7]:39325) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XqBME-0001Fn-IX for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:43:58 -0500 Original-Received: from mail.blacknight.com (pemlinmail03.blacknight.ie [81.17.254.16]) by outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B1F39832B for ; Mon, 17 Nov 2014 01:40:56 +0000 (UTC) Original-Received: (qmail 19735 invoked from network); 17 Nov 2014 01:43:57 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO RTLaptop) (rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com@[109.76.106.236]) by 81.17.254.9 with ESMTPSA (DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA encrypted, authenticated); 17 Nov 2014 01:43:57 -0000 In-Reply-To: (message from Andrey Lisin on Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:00:14 +0600) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 81.17.249.7 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:100977 Archived-At: Andrey Lisin writes: > Hello, > > really why? Are there any advantages of etags format over standard > ctags? Is there any reason to increase the entropy? > > Could anyone explain it? :) Ctags is very VI specific. The portion of each tag that takes the editor to the right place in the code is a command for the ex program. ("Ex" is a part of VI originally it was a separate program but it isn't in modern VI-like editors). A valid Ctags program could put all sorts of things in that field. Instead Emacs uses the number of bytes from the start of the code file. BR, Robert Thorpe