Simon BrookeJul 7, 2024

@zyd @falken @oantolin @jesus

> We're hardly ever typing function definitions into it so I rather think of it as your workbench.

This is because Common #Lisp is designed around text editing files in file store rather than structure editing actual Lisp structures in memory -- to the extent that it's pretty hard to retrofit a structure editor into Common Lisp.

I feel, having grown up in the days of structure editors, that this is an enormous own goal.

Show threadOmar AntolínJul 7, 2024
@simon_brooke @zyd @falken @jesus I think I missed that era of structure editors! All the editors I know use text and all of the attempts at structure editors I've read about seem to have failed to gain any traction. Which structure editors did you use?
Show threadSimon Brooke
@oantolin @zyd @falken @jesus
I *think* the editor in BBC #Lisp was just called 'edit'; the editor in Cambridge Lisp was invoked as 'fedit' when editing functions, and I *think* that was pretty much the lifted direct from Portable Standard Lisp. The structure editor in #InterlispD was invoked as DEdit (for 'display edit'). Interlisp had the structure editor well integrated with the package manager, and I roughly copied that into Portable Standard Lisp...
Jul 7, 2024 at 10:45pmWeb
Show threadSimon BrookeJul 7, 2024

@oantolin @zyd @falken @jesus Ah! Acornsoft (BBC) Lisp did not come with a built in editor, but the manual told you how to write your own, here:

https://www.journeyman.cc/~simon/tmp/LISP_on_the_BBC_Microcomputer.pdf#page=115

The Cambridge Lisp editor was very similar to (a bit more sophisticated than) this.

I absolutely loved these editors; they felt very natural to me. And of course they completely eliminate the problem of balancing brackets.

[Edit: corrected the URL, so that other people can read it. Whoops!]

Show threadMarce CollJul 8, 2024
@simon_brooke @oantolin @zyd @falken @jesus afair the interlips structural editor was invoked as SEdit, right?
Show threadSimon BrookeJul 8, 2024

@dziban @oantolin @zyd @falken @jesus Not until the Medley release, and we've been disagreeing in this thread about whether SEdit counts as a structure editor at all. It may be, and I may be wrong, but it was certainly very different from DEdit.

I personally really liked DEdit, and very much disliked SEdit; but other people clearly did/do like it.