From: Antonio Leitao
Subject: Re: In- and Out-of- core editors (was Re: Which one, Lisp or Scheme?)
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 00:00:00 +0000
Message-ID: <wod8udc6fq.fsf@gia.ist.utl.pt>

This thread reminds me of an old discussion between Richard Stallman
and Sandewall regarding the relative merits between structured editors
and text editors.

For all of us who don't remind or don't know what a structure editor
is, let's read the following paper:

@Article{Sandewall:1978:PIE,
  author =3D       "Erik Sandewall",
  title =3D        "Programming in an Interactive Environment: the ``{\sc
                 Lisp}'' Experience",
  journal =3D      "ACM Computing Surveys",
  volume =3D       "10",
  number =3D       "1",
  pages =3D        "35--71",
  month =3D        mar,
  year =3D         "1978",
  coden =3D        "CMSVAN",
  ISSN =3D         "0010-4892",
  bibdate =3D      "Wed Dec 18 07:42:17 MST 1996",
  note =3D         "See also
                 \cite{Stallman:1978:SFS,Sandewall:1978:SFS}.",
  abstract =3D     "LISP systems have been used for highly interactive
                 programming for more than a decade. During that time,
                 special properties of the LISP language (such as
                 program\slash data equivalence) have enabled a certain
                 style of interactive programming to develop,
                 characterized by powerful interactive support for the
                 programmer, nonstandard program structures, and
                 nonstandard program development methods. A summary is
                 given of the LISP style of interactive programming for
                 readers outside the LISP community, describes those
                 properties of LISP systems that were essential for the
                 development of this style, and discusses some current
                 and not yet resolved issues.",
  acknowledgement =3D ack-nhfb,
  classification =3D "723",
  keywords =3D     "computer programming",
}

Then, for a case against structure editors (and the previous article,
in particular), by the Master of text editors, Stallman himself, read
the following:

@Article{Stallman:1978:SFS,
  author =3D       "Richard M. Stallman",
  title =3D        "{Surveyor's Forum}: Structured Editing with a {Lisp}",
  journal =3D      "ACM Computing Surveys",
  volume =3D       "10",
  number =3D       "4",
  pages =3D        "505--507",
  month =3D        dec,
  year =3D         "1978",
  coden =3D        "CMSVAN",
  ISSN =3D         "0010-4892",
  bibdate =3D      "Mon Sep 19 20:29:44 1994",
  note =3D         "See \cite{Sandewall:1978:PIE,Sandewall:1978:SFS}.",
  acknowledgement =3D ack-nhfb,
}

And finally, for a conclusion, read the reply to the reply of
Stallman:

@Article{Sandewall:1978:SFS,
  author =3D       "Erik Sandewall",
  title =3D        "{Surveyor's Forum}: Structured Editing with a {\sc
                 Lisp}",
  journal =3D      "ACM Computing Surveys",
  volume =3D       "10",
  number =3D       "4",
  pages =3D        "507--508",
  month =3D        dec,
  year =3D         "1978",
  coden =3D        "CMSVAN",
  ISSN =3D         "0010-4892",
  bibdate =3D      "Thu Sep 29 23:53:19 1994",
  note =3D         "See \cite{Sandewall:1978:PIE,Stallman:1978:SFS}.",
  acknowledgement =3D ack-nhfb,
}

After this home-work, we can restart the discussion...

Ant=F3nio Leit=E3o.