[This is posted to the pop-forum email list and the newsgroups:
comp.lang.pop,comp.lang.prolog,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.ml,comp.ai,comp.emacs]
Thanks to Brian Logan there is now a new Emacs-based interface to Poplog
and its languages.
The problem:
The Poplog system, now available free from
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/freepoplog.html
or
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/freepoplog.html
is convenient for teaching and research using incremental compilers for
Pop-11, Prolog, Common Lisp or ML, but for Emacs users it can be
frustrating because so much of Poplog (especially the online
documentation and library mechanism) is geared to the integrated editor
Ved (or XVed), and anyone using another editor, such as Emacs, loses
out, 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. Much of the poplog documentation 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 nuisance for
everyone else.
By about 1995 there was a partial solution to problems 1 and 2
implemented by Richard Caley in Edinburgh some time ago, and circulated
with Poplog in the $popcontrib directory. However it did not address
point 2 fully, nor points 3 and 4.
In 1996 Brian Logan extended the Emacs/Xemacs customisation files for
Poplog users to meet these points.
He has now added some further extensions and bug-fixes (with some help
from Lieven Marchand) and the new version can be fetched from the
Birmingham Poplog ftp directory:
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/emacs.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/emacs.tar.gz
or browsed online in this directory
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/emacs/
ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/dist/poplog/emacs/
See the emacs/CHANGES file for most recent alterations and bugfixes.
The online documentation is in the emacs/emacs files.
Emacs users are free to copy and use these files, though we offer no
support. Please post any queries to comp.lang.pop and comp.emacs
Aaron
===
--
Aaron Sloman, ( http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/ )
School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
EMAIL A.Sloman AT cs.bham.ac.uk (NB: Anti Spam address)
PAPERS: ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk/pub/groups/cog_affect/0-INDEX.html
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