I am running sam as a standalone on Debian 10:
https://9fans.github.io/plan9port/
I have found this version to be stable and would not like to change it.
I also like the visual display. 
I start up sam from the terminal with a single option:
font=/mnt/font/GoMono/14/font sam
In this scenario, i.e. not running sam on plan9 itself, does

- (plumb) perform any useful action?
- Is there a way to customise the starting layout of sam? Someone recommended this link:
http://runjimmyrunrunyoufuckerrun.com/rc/s
However, I have had difficulty running this script in my setup.
- Does sam have any such a thing as a customisation file, such as .emacs or .vimrc? If so, where can I find any documentation on it?
- sam's regex seem to lie somewhere between ed and more recent structural regular expressions, yet is not synonymous with either. Can someone point me to a specific resource that explains these expressions in more detail than does the sam man and sam tut?