From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs setup assistants Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 23:35:25 +0200 Organization: Programmerer Ingebrigtsen Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <4n8yfofnan.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1085006513 27524 80.91.224.253 (19 May 2004 22:41:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 22:41:53 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Thu May 20 00:41:45 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BQZku-0004ZM-00 for ; Thu, 20 May 2004 00:41:44 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BQZkt-0002tk-00 for ; Thu, 20 May 2004 00:41:43 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1BQZhm-0006bH-TG for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Wed, 19 May 2004 18:38:30 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.34) id 1BQZhM-0006b1-Hc for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 19 May 2004 18:38:04 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.34) id 1BQYmH-00031J-A7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 19 May 2004 17:39:41 -0400 Original-Received: from [80.91.224.249] (helo=main.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1BQYjK-0002I9-48 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 19 May 2004 17:36:02 -0400 Original-Received: from list by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BQYjH-0000il-00 for ; Wed, 19 May 2004 23:35:59 +0200 Original-Received: from quimbies.gnus.org ([80.91.231.2]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 May 2004 23:35:59 +0200 Original-Received: from larsi by quimbies.gnus.org with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 May 2004 23:35:59 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-Lines: 25 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: quimbies.gnus.org Mail-Copies-To: never X-Now-Playing: Coil's _Unnatural History II_: "Another Brown World" User-Agent: Gnus/5.110003 (No Gnus v0.3) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:ZADOSyOGX7S6ntxcr7VVUJcQ6Cc= X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:23743 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:23743 Thien-Thi Nguyen writes: > the most well-supported machinery would be straight elisp (which > is also easy to write and parse visually, for some). i think if i > were to write a setup assistant, i would find the markup approach > cumbersome (as opposed to the assistant-library-API approach), > because it requires understanding the implicit API anyway; using > markup w/o this understanding is a false economy. Writing an assistant as straight elisp would be very dull, because it's so repetitive. You have inputs, you have branches, you have text, and writing that programmatically over and over again would be a pain. Not to mention difficult to maintain. The point of the language proposed here (an extension of TeXinfo, which is a language that most Emacs developers are already familiar with (to a greater or lesser degree)) is to make it easy and pleasant to write assistants. That way, there's a greater chance that they'll get written, and that they'll be maintained. -- (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen