Re: Gnu Emacs Ada and Dec's LSE/EDT

[leake@cme-durer.ARPA (Stephe Leake)]

I have been using DEC's  LSE for a couple years now, and Gnuemacs
almost as long. Currently, I find LSE better (for Ada development),
but in general, I agree with Lynn Slater's comments on the openness
and community support available in gnuemacs.

The main reason I like LSE is that it supports true language
syntax expansions. You can enter "if^E", and the editor inserts:

if {boolean_expression}
then
	{statement}...
[else_part]
end if;

The things in brackets and braces are "placeholders", which can be
further expanded by placing the cursor in them and typing ^E. This is
a _great_ way to learn the syntax of a new language, or to remind an
expert of something she doesn't use often. LSE lets the user
modify the language syntax for formatting, or even add a new language.

LSE  is also extensible: I have added file name completion, an
interface to mail, a DCL interface, etc. I wish there was a DEC news
group I could access from my LSE machine as easily as this newsgroup
from my gnuemacs machine.

So, maybe someday I'll add true syntax expansion to gnu, and then say
goodby to LSE.

Stephe Leake 	(301) 975-3431 		leake@cme.nbs.gov
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(formerly National Bureau of Standards)
Rm. B-124, Bldg. 220
Gaithersburg, MD  20899