Posted to newsgroups:
comp.lang.pop,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.ml,comp.ai,comp.emacs
There is now a new interface to Poplog and its languages for users who
would rather use Emacs than the Poplog editor Ved.
The problem:
The Poplog system is very convenient for teaching and research using
fast incremental compilers for Pop-11, Prolog, Common Lisp or ML, but
for Emacs users it is very frustrating because so much of Poplog
(especially the online documentation and library mechanism) is geared to
the integrated editor Ved, and anyone using another editor, such as
Emacs, loses out seriously. This is because
1. Much of the online teaching documentation assumes you are using Ved
(which allows you to compile a marked range, and allows output from
commands in Pop-11, Prolog, etc to be appended to an editor buffer).
2. The editor uses search lists for finding help files, teach files, and
library files. When you compile a new library it may extend these
search lists. Ved will be informed about the changes, but a separate
editor, such as Emacs will not.
3. The online documentation files use an indexing system about which
Emacs knows nothing.
4. Worst of all much of the poplog documentation now uses a *private*
set of graphical characters (e.g. for underlining, bold, italics, etc.),
which seriously interferes with reading or printing the files unless you
are a Ved user. This makes the files look much nicer for Ved users but
is a complete disaster for everyone else.
There was a partial solution to problems 1 and 2 implemented by Richard
Caley, and circulated with Poplog in the $popcontrib directory. However
it did not address point 2 fully, nor points 3 and 4.
Brian Logan has now extended the Emacs customisation files for Poplog
users and they can be fetched by ftp from the Birmingham Poplog ftp
directory:
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/
in the sub-directory emacs/
This contains the new files, also available in a compressed tar file
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/emacstar.gz
The old emacs customisation is in the subdirectory emacs.old, and the
compressed tar file
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/emacs.old.tar.gz
Both have README files
Emacs users are free to copy and use these files, though we offer no
support. Please post any queries to comp.lang.pop. Bug reports may be
sent to the authors (see the README files).
Poplog itself is obtainable from Integral Solutions Ltd. and its
distributors. See
http://www.isl.co.uk/
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/poplog.info.html
For more information on Poplog and the Pop-11 language see Adrian
Howard's web pages at Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/adrianh/poplog.html
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/adrianh/pop11.html
or Anthony Worrall's information page at Reading University
http://www.cvg.cs.reading.ac.uk/poplog
and a brief introductory overview of Pop-11
http://www.isl.co.uk/pop11int.html
For the free linux version of Poplog see
ftp://ftp.cogs.susx.ac.uk/pub/poplog/poplog15.0
(It includes all the languages, but is memory limited and does not
allow creation of saved images.)
Note: "Poplog" is a trade mark of the University of Sussex, where it was
originally developed.
My pop-11 teaching material for beginner AI students is freely available
from the Birmingham Poplog ftp site. See the README file for more
information.
Aaron
===
--
Aaron Sloman, ( http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs )
School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, England
EMAIL ········@cs.bham.ac.uk
Phone: +44-121-414-4775 (Sec 3711) Fax: +44-121-414-4281