Dear David, > Unfortunately, I had already looked into Emacs extensions to > provide project maintenance, and what I found would have taken me > more time to modify than if I started from scratch and wrote my > own emacslisp. And I could not find any indexed outline (as in > NoteTab) extensions (perhaps I didn't know the right place to > look).
> Also, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a forum oriented > toward people doing substantial customization work on Windows > Emacs. > I really need a better editor, but without support it seems a > risky project. > I thank you for pointing out that stripping down Emacs probably > would not be of much help. > I'll take another look at customizing Emacs when I have time away > from my current rather intensive project (creating a website > framework). > Finding or creating an editor that supports the way I like to work > seems to be rather difficult. Well, let's look at it this way. I use Emacs for all sorts of things -- text files, html files, Java files, C++ files, templates, XML files, batch files, etc. This means that no matter what I'm doing, I can use the same editor commands and the same hotkeys. Emacs macros do all my file and directory management, so all my files and directories are managed the same way, no matter what I'm doing. Whenever I find myself doing the same thing over and over, then I write an Emacs macro. Yes, that takes time, but it means that I save enormous amounts of time in the future. I'll go even farther than that. In the rare situation that Emacs can't do something, then I have the macro call a Perl program to do whatever is necessary. And even farther: I've worked on Windows and on several flavors of Unix, including Red Hat Linux and Macintosh Linux, and I use EXACTLY the same macros and hotkeys to do editing and file management. And of course Perl is available on all those systems. So no matter what I'm working on, no matter what computer I'm on, I have a familiar user interface that works exactly the way I want to. Yes, it takes time to get it set up, but the rewards are enormous. In fact, I save huge amounts of time every day, since Emacs does all sorts of things for me that would normally take time. > Also, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a forum oriented > toward people doing substantial customization work on Windows > Emacs. The problem is that your desires for a user interface are probably extremely personal. I use all the macros and templates that come with Emacs, but I still have all sorts of things that I want to do -- manipulating files, managing files, converting files, etc. -- that are what I want and probably no one else in the world wants. For example, I've written macros that provide a searchable indexed outline, and I absolutely love that functionality and use it a thousand times a day, and it works the same on all files, operating systems and platforms, but it probably still isn't exactly the way you'd like it. Your tastes are as personal as mine. So you might find a forum that provides generic Emacs solutions, but most likely you or a consultant would have to customize the macros specifically to the way you want to work. You also mentioned support. I've used editors like Brief and Codewrite in the past that are no longer supported and don't even run on the latest versions of Windows. That REALLY sucks. So another reason that I like Emacs is that it's almost certain to be supported forever. It's been around since the 1970s, and has been implemented on just about every platform. Same with Perl. So I'm pretty certain that it will be around longer than I will, which is good enough for me. > Finding or creating an editor that supports the way I like to work > seems to be rather difficult. My suggestion is that you bite the bullet and get some minimal functionality working the way you want it, and then add to it over time. Once you write some basic macros to do project management, then you're all set forever, and you can add to functionality as you wish. Sincerely, John John J. Xenakis 100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A Cambridge, MA 02142 Phone: 617-864-0010 E-mail: j...@jxenakis.com Resume: http://www.jxenakis.com/resume http://www.jxenakis.com