Re: text editor

[Julien Lepiller <julien@lepiller.eu>]

Hi Gottfried,

If you don't feel ready for emacs, I would suggest you try Gedit. It's
a graphical text editor with basic functionalities like syntax
highlighting. It won't do as much as emacs or vim, but it should be
very easy to use :)

Le Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:14:32 +0000,
Gottfried <gottfried@posteo.de> a écrit :

> Hi, thanks for Your email.
> I am not sitting the whole day in front of a computer, I am working
> in a technical job to help people.
> 
> So I didn´t have time to learn any computer language, emacs etc.
> because I didn´t need it for my life yet.
> 
> Which editor You would propose , I should use, to show which brackets 
> belong to each other, as you described in your email?
> 
> I guess emacs is too difficult for me to learn, because it would make 
> sense only, if I used it regularly.
> So it would be good a more simple editor.
> 
> gottfried
> 
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 20:34:05 +0000 ()
> From: Jay Sulzberger <jays@panix.com>
> To: help-guix@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: scanner
> Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2202211947560.7652@panix3.panix.com>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
> 
> Dear Gottfried <gottfried@posteo.de>, I use an editor which allows me
> to check whether a bit of text is a well formed sexp, that is, a well
> formed Lisp expression.  I do not have Guile on the machine I am
> writing this on, but I am writing using Emacs.
> 
> Here is a syntactically, well, at the level of sexps, well formed
> version of your Guix expression:
> 
> (services
>    (append
>     (list (service mate-desktop-service-type)
>           (service enlightenment-desktop-service-type)
>           (service cups-service-type
>                    (cups-configuration
>                     (web-interface? #t)
>                     (extensions (list cups-filters
>                                       hplip))))
>           (service openssh-service-type)
>           (service tor-service-type)
>           (set-xorg-configuration
>            (xorg-configuration
>             (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
>     (modify-services %desktop-services
>                      (sane-service-type _ => sane-backends))))
> 
> I got this by typing the following into an emacs buffer:
> 
> (services
>    (append
>      (list (service mate-desktop-service-type)
>    (service enlightenment-desktop-service-type)
>    (service cups-service-type
>    (cups-configuration
>    (web-interface? #t)
>     (extensions (list cups-filters
>    hplip))))
>    (service openssh-service-type)
>    (service tor-service-type)
>    (set-xorg-configuration
>     (xorg-configuration
>     (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
>     (modify-services %desktop-services
>                      (sane-service-type _ => sane-backends))
> 
> which is, I think, the thing you sent to the help-guix list.
> 
> I then added a single parenthesis onto your expression and Emacs
> showed me that the new right parenthesis matched the left parenthesis
> on the second line of your expression.  That is, the left parenthesis
> in
> 
>    (append
> 
> I then added one more right parenthesis, which Emacs showed me matched
> the first left parenthesis of your whole expression.  That is, the
> left parenthesis in
> 
> (services
> 
> Assuming Emacs is correct in matching parentheses, the result, as
> shown at top, is a Lisply correct sexp.  But it may, or may not, be a
> Guixly syntactically correct expression, because the Guix system may
> have more constraints on what it accepts as a command, beyond the
> constraint of being a proper sexp.
> 
> I remain, as ever, your fellow student of history and probability,
> Jay Sulzberger
> 
> 
> PS. I got the Lisp-traditional (well, a Lisp traditional) indentation
> of the (text representation of) the first expression by asking Emacs
> to perform:
> 
> indent-sexp
> 
> on an un-indented version.
> 
> PPS. Reading more carefully your post to help-guix, I now understand
> that you already completely grasp the main meat of my note.  But as a
> member in mostly good standing of the Emacs Tendency of the Front for
> Free Software, I send this note.
>