Re: [9fans] Using the Acme Editor

["Ramon de Vera" <ramondevera@gmail.com>]

This is all as far as I  know how to use acme (mind you I haven't
stretched acme out as far as the other guys might have)...

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 9:52 AM, Wendell xe <wendellxe@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Seeking an alternative to vi and emacs, I've been giving Acme a try (acme-sac, actually). After reading the articles and man pages and playing with it for a few days, I'll admit I don't see how Acme could be even remotely competitive with vim/emacs for editing code.
>

Isn't "I don't see how Acme could be even remotely competitive..."
seem a tad harsh?  :-)   It is just a little different than what you
normally use. Acme is pretty powerful. And how I answer your questions
below might shed light with you on how it is used.

> Searching the 9fans archive, I found admonitions that you have to learn Acme's very different operating paradigm, but no specific advice. So I'm posting here a list of editor features I miss in Acme. For each item, what is the Acme way of approaching it?
>
> I hope that the replys in this thread will serve as a reference for others trying to learn Acme.
>
> 01. Toggle on/off line wrapping

     You can't. It always wraps lines around.

> 02. Toggle on/off EOL character display

    Edit ,x/\n/ c/<EOL>\n/
    Undo

    :-)

> 03. Display line numbers

   Edit =

...will show the line number where dot is, but to display the line
number to the side of each line. I have no use for such a thing so I
haven't even thought about it at all as I use acme.

> 04. Display ruler

    No such thing in acme.

> 05. Rectangluar block selection

    No such thing in acme.

> 06. Search and replace with confirmation at each item

    Place in the tagline your edit line,
         Edit s/oldtext/newtext/

    1. B3-sweep or B3 your text to search
    2. B2 your edit line
    repeat process from 1 till you are happy

> 07. Automatic insertion of spaces for tabs

    No automatic tab-to-space replacements. Naturally you can do it
from an Edit command.

> 08. Syntax highlighting of code

   No such thing in acme.

> 09. Code folding

   No such thing built-in to acme.

> 10. Code clips/completion

    Place cursor where you want to insert text and use the '<' command
and provide the command that outputs your text.

    OR

    B2-sweep your keyword, and use the '|' command, and provide the
command that will accept the keyword and spit out the corresponding
text.

> 11. Bookmarks

    Have a separate bookmark file  (or maybe even in the tag line
before you do a Dump), that uses the filepath:linenumber format and
just B3 the 'bookmarks'.

> 12. Display file diff with locked parallel windows

    Acme doesn't have a built-in 'diff mode'

> 13. Customize the contextual display of commands in the tag line

   If you mean dynamically change available commands in the tag line
as you move around your code, no there is no such thing. (It might be
an interesting acme file server exercise).

   If you mean preserve common commands that you use often for the
current work you are doing you can just place the stuff you want in
the tag line and Dump/Load it or pre-load a Guide file.

> 14. Customize the color scheme

   Edit the acme code, recompile and enjoy :-) :-) :-) No color scheme
changing stuff built-in to acme. I know some people want their baby
green, polka dot  inspired color schemes but acme isn't about that.
:-)

> 15. Change fonts

   The Font command does this as well as the command line parameters
to Acme, please see manual.

> 16. HTML tag matching

    If you mean automatic tag completion, you can do that using my
suggestion in 10.

    If you mean just matching the start and end tags, acme does not
have that built-in or something but you can code (or use Edit?) for
that

> 17. Display (in status bar?) the Unicode ID of glyph at cursor

    Eric already answered that.

> 18. Display right-to-left text

    Eric already answered that.

>
> Also, regarding Acme's use as a file browser:
>
> 19. Open new directories in the same window, so that you don't get a desktop full of windows as you drill down through a directory tree.

    I think some of the other guys have made slight code changes so
that acme will do what you stated, so you'd need to really modify the
acme code, recompile and enjoy.

    The other guys might have even better suggestions.

Resistance is futile, you _will_ be assimilated. :-)

Best Regards,
Mon