5 ms·

Linus Torvalds' Micro-emacs

40 points by njn 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
Anon84 17y ago
"Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum, habemus editorum." Now that emacs has been anointed by Linus, I hereby announce emacs the winner of the long lasting editor wars. Let us now proceed to purge vi (and other lesser editors) from the face of the Earth, and let none speak of them again. </joke>
- wglb 17y ago
  Keep in mind that microemacs (the original spelling) (or uemacs) is not emacs, although it resembles it faintly. It was originally written by David G. Conroy while working on the dec pc that used a z80 as an io controller and an 8086. Daniel Lawrence did a lot of work on it as well. So it is not quite right to say that emacs has been anointed by Linus.
  - jackchristopher 17y ago
    Pertaining to the editor wars. There's a great (long) video about Linus and Linux history from 2001. Watch the whole thing if you can—after the 40 minute mark is especially worth it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTWCPoUt8w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTWCPoUt8w 55 minutes in someone asks him, "What editor and mail reader do you use?" He smirks, "The editor is microemacs, the best editor ever made. And vi and GNU Emacs suck, suck."
    - wglb 17y ago
      Well, it is not much of a war. I know perhaps 8 people that use uemacs (I don't any longer--quit when I no longer was using Coherent or Atari ST), so if it is a war, only Linus' weight makes it even a battle.
- joblessjunkie 17y ago
  So Linus has finally annointed "the most gummed-up piece of absolute sh*t there is!" ? http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2
  - mahmud 17y ago
    I down-voted you without realizing your were quoting Linus verbatim.
- mkramlich 17y ago
  I for one welcome our new microemacs overlords. (No I don't. hugs vi)
gurraman 17y ago
I guess he decided to fix it: http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2
- gurraman 17y ago
  That post should be downvoted as the link does not apply to uemacs :)
afed 17y ago
What are the pros and cons of Micro-emacs v. mg?
theli0nheart 17y ago
I wish I could build this on OS X. I guess I'm writing a patch for it now.
- dchest 17y ago
  There is Jasspa's distribution available. Binaries for OS X are here: http://www.jasspa.com/downapple.html http://www.jasspa.com/downapple.html (Delete key doesn't work as backspace, though :( I'd love to see your patch for Linus's version)
  - nrr 17y ago
    I use the JASSPA distribution on Windows, but placing this in your configuration might point you in the right direction. global-bind-key backward-delete-char "delete"
    - dchest 17y ago
      Thanks, it works! (Now "Forward Delete"/Fn+Delete doesn't work, though, but I use it rarely).
  - njn 17y ago
    Jasspa's is pretty different from Petri Kutvonen's/Linus Torvald's microemacs, though. Much more features.
there 17y ago
openbsd has had a (still somewhat-actively-developed) tiny emacs-like editor in its tree called mg for quite a while. http://pintday.org/hack/mg/ http://pintday.org/hack/mg/ http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mg/ http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mg/
- silentbicycle 17y ago
  Yeah, but that lacks the extensibility that makes Emacs really noteworthy. I use mg for editing /etc when setting up a new OpenBSD system, or very quick edits, but it's not a replacement. It's just as "always there" as vi (on OpenBSD, at least), but with the default Emacs keyboard shortcuts.
  - vorador 17y ago
    Yes but mg has a powerful tool for software development. Just try M-x theo. I find it quite motivating.
icey 17y ago
Okay, so I did some googling; and I'm not quite sure why someone would prefer this over regular GNU Emacs or XEmacs. Any emacsen around that could shed some light on why you'd use this instead of a more "modern" emacs?
- ams6110 17y ago
  Back in the day there used to be an emacs-like editor that would fit on a floppy (1.4MB) disk. Not sure if it was microEmacs or some other name, though the name microEmacs certainly dates back at least to the early 1990s. The idea was if you ever found yourself needing to do some work on a Windowz box that only had Notepad you could whip that out and get something done.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Any emacsen around that could shed some light on why you'd use this instead of a more "modern" emacs? NIH. It would be pretty easy to make GNU emacs behave exactly like mg or microemacs. But then you couldn't tell your friends, "I wrote my own Emacs".
  - limmeau 17y ago
    Another member of the "I wrote my own Emacs" club: Fabrice Bellard, of QEMU, TinyCC, FFMpeg, LZEXE... http://bellard.org/qemacs/ http://bellard.org/qemacs/
  - Oxryly 17y ago
    Linus didn't write it. He's certainly modified it but it was written by others. For example the eval.c header sez: * written 1986 by Daniel Lawrence * modified by Petri Kutvonen I'm sure someone else knows more about it's history.
- garnet7 17y ago
  > Any emacsen around that could shed some light on Minor note: "emacsen" refers to various and sundry implementations of Emacs, not users of emacs. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Emacsen http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Emacsen
ozten 17y ago
History of Micro-emacs ... http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MicroEmacs http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MicroEmacs
garnet7 17y ago
After having spent some time looking around for a tiny emacsalike ("ersatzemacs") for making quick edits on remote systems, I settled on [zile](http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/ http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/).
garnet7 17y ago
I don't understand: does this link mean that we're looking at Linus's own branch of microemacs/uemacs? Is he patching the one he uses, and if so, are the changes going back into [Jasspa's MicroEmacs](http://www.jasspa.com/ http://www.jasspa.com/)?
zephyrfalcon 17y ago
Am I the only one who feels that it shouldn't be called "Emacs" if it doesn't have Lisp inside it? (Not to be a Lisp fanboy, but that seems to be the defining feature...)

40 points by njn 17y ago

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

"Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum, habemus editorum." Now that emacs has been anointed by Linus, I hereby announce emacs the winner of the long lasting editor wars. Let us now proceed to purge vi (and other lesser editors) from the face of the Earth, and let none speak of them again. </joke>

wglb 17y ago
Keep in mind that microemacs (the original spelling) (or uemacs) is not emacs, although it resembles it faintly. It was originally written by David G. Conroy while working on the dec pc that used a z80 as an io controller and an 8086. Daniel Lawrence did a lot of work on it as well. So it is not quite right to say that emacs has been anointed by Linus.
- jackchristopher 17y ago
  Pertaining to the editor wars. There's a great (long) video about Linus and Linux history from 2001. Watch the whole thing if you can—after the 40 minute mark is especially worth it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTWCPoUt8w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTWCPoUt8w 55 minutes in someone asks him, "What editor and mail reader do you use?" He smirks, "The editor is microemacs, the best editor ever made. And vi and GNU Emacs suck, suck."
  - wglb 17y ago
    Well, it is not much of a war. I know perhaps 8 people that use uemacs (I don't any longer--quit when I no longer was using Coherent or Atari ST), so if it is a war, only Linus' weight makes it even a battle.
joblessjunkie 17y ago
So Linus has finally annointed "the most gummed-up piece of absolute sh*t there is!" ? http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2
- mahmud 17y ago
  I down-voted you without realizing your were quoting Linus verbatim.
mkramlich 17y ago
I for one welcome our new microemacs overlords. (No I don't. hugs vi)

gurraman 17y ago

I guess he decided to fix it: http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2 http://marc.info/?l=git&m=122955159617722&w=2

gurraman 17y ago
That post should be downvoted as the link does not apply to uemacs :)

afed 17y ago

What are the pros and cons of Micro-emacs v. mg?

theli0nheart 17y ago

I wish I could build this on OS X. I guess I'm writing a patch for it now.

dchest 17y ago
There is Jasspa's distribution available. Binaries for OS X are here: http://www.jasspa.com/downapple.html http://www.jasspa.com/downapple.html (Delete key doesn't work as backspace, though :( I'd love to see your patch for Linus's version)
- nrr 17y ago
  I use the JASSPA distribution on Windows, but placing this in your configuration might point you in the right direction. global-bind-key backward-delete-char "delete"
  - dchest 17y ago
    Thanks, it works! (Now "Forward Delete"/Fn+Delete doesn't work, though, but I use it rarely).
- njn 17y ago
  Jasspa's is pretty different from Petri Kutvonen's/Linus Torvald's microemacs, though. Much more features.

there 17y ago

openbsd has had a (still somewhat-actively-developed) tiny emacs-like editor in its tree called mg for quite a while. http://pintday.org/hack/mg/ http://pintday.org/hack/mg/ http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mg/ http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/usr.bin/mg/

silentbicycle 17y ago
Yeah, but that lacks the extensibility that makes Emacs really noteworthy. I use mg for editing /etc when setting up a new OpenBSD system, or very quick edits, but it's not a replacement. It's just as "always there" as vi (on OpenBSD, at least), but with the default Emacs keyboard shortcuts.
- vorador 17y ago
  Yes but mg has a powerful tool for software development. Just try M-x theo. I find it quite motivating.

icey 17y ago

Okay, so I did some googling; and I'm not quite sure why someone would prefer this over regular GNU Emacs or XEmacs. Any emacsen around that could shed some light on why you'd use this instead of a more "modern" emacs?

ams6110 17y ago
Back in the day there used to be an emacs-like editor that would fit on a floppy (1.4MB) disk. Not sure if it was microEmacs or some other name, though the name microEmacs certainly dates back at least to the early 1990s. The idea was if you ever found yourself needing to do some work on a Windowz box that only had Notepad you could whip that out and get something done.
jrockway 17y ago
Any emacsen around that could shed some light on why you'd use this instead of a more "modern" emacs? NIH. It would be pretty easy to make GNU emacs behave exactly like mg or microemacs. But then you couldn't tell your friends, "I wrote my own Emacs".
- limmeau 17y ago
  Another member of the "I wrote my own Emacs" club: Fabrice Bellard, of QEMU, TinyCC, FFMpeg, LZEXE... http://bellard.org/qemacs/ http://bellard.org/qemacs/
- Oxryly 17y ago
  Linus didn't write it. He's certainly modified it but it was written by others. For example the eval.c header sez: * written 1986 by Daniel Lawrence * modified by Petri Kutvonen I'm sure someone else knows more about it's history.
garnet7 17y ago
> Any emacsen around that could shed some light on Minor note: "emacsen" refers to various and sundry implementations of Emacs, not users of emacs. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Emacsen http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Emacsen

ozten 17y ago

History of Micro-emacs ... http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MicroEmacs http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MicroEmacs

garnet7 17y ago

After having spent some time looking around for a tiny emacsalike ("ersatzemacs") for making quick edits on remote systems, I settled on [zile](http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/ http://www.gnu.org/software/zile/).

garnet7 17y ago

I don't understand: does this link mean that we're looking at Linus's own branch of microemacs/uemacs? Is he patching the one he uses, and if so, are the changes going back into [Jasspa's MicroEmacs](http://www.jasspa.com/ http://www.jasspa.com/)?

zephyrfalcon 17y ago

Am I the only one who feels that it shouldn't be called "Emacs" if it doesn't have Lisp inside it? (Not to be a Lisp fanboy, but that seems to be the defining feature...)