Stefan Scholl  <stesch@no-spoon.de> wrote:
+---------------
| They ways of other languages: Take an editor of your choice, which
| can be a VI if you want to, save your work, run the implementation
| of the Language to either execute (Perl, Ruby, Rexx, Python, ...) or
| compile (C, C++, OCaml, ...) it. Error in the code? Jump to the
| indicated line and correct it.
| 
| In CL you are forced to use Emacs (or some emacs like editor of the
| commercial vendors) to make the differences worth the effort of
| using CL at all.
+---------------

This is a persistent myth. Yes, if you use (or *can* use[1]) Emacs,
there are some significant speedups in performing certain tasks, but
one really *can* develop sizable Common Lisp apps just fine with "vi".

"Vi" has paren-matching, paren-flashing, and shift left/right to matching
paren. So rather than do *everything* in one window (or set of windows)
as in Emacs-with-SLIME (or ILISP), when using "vi" (or some other editor)
one keeps another window open to a REPL in the application, where you
invoke LOAD (or something more convenient, such as ASDF) whenever you
write out an update from the editor. [And you use the mouse to cut'n'paste
>from the editor to the REPL for trial evaluation of single redefined
functions.] You're still "living in the editor", mostly...


-Rob

[1] I have tried several times to make the transition from Vi to Emacs,
    but have never been successful. Emacs gives my hands cramps (literally).
    I'm just too used to using "moded" editors where most of the "editing"
    commands are unshifted, un-control, un-meta lowercase alphabetics.
    [Guess I spent too much time using TECO in my youth...]

-----
Rob Warnock			<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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