Re: simple editor required

[Bruce Ingalls]

Paul Edwards wrote:
> "Bruce Ingalls" <bingalls@CUT-this-SPAM-BLOCK.fit-zones.com> wrote in message 
> news:6V2Da.96131$h42.53153@twister.nyc.rr.com...
...
> emacs 20.7.1 behaves as I expect.  I do ctrl-escape to start
> marking, and then I can find or goto to get to the spot where
> I want the block to end, and then I go ctrl-w to cut.
>
> xemacs loses my marker.
>
> > How do you expect to unselect text?
>
> ctrl-g.
>
> > Emacs is designed to be powerful, not simple.
> > Try nedit or pico for less featureful editors.
>
> I'm already familiar with the emacs commands, it's just that I
> seem to get different results with every new emacs I encounter.
>
> It's like they keep changing the defaults just to annoy me, and I
> need to find some arcane thing to put it back to normal.

Since you are an accomplished Emacs user, your post is starting to take
on "troll"-like elements.

You ask for a featureless, simple editor, then ask for a feature that no
editor provides. The good news is that Emacs makes more things possible,
than with other editors. The bad news, is
1) this is what makes Emacs powerful, and not simple
2) Emacs is run by the community.

You are somehow looking at the above added/optional feature, and 
wondering why it disappears from some releases, which perhaps stick to 
the core, standard features.

Emacs could mention that some features are enhanced options. If you know 
of an effective way to do so, such that this does not unnecessarily get 
users' hopes up, let us know.

More bad news:
For a short term solution, you will either have to hire a consultant, or 
write a .emacs file.
The good news, is that free software makes this possible, and the Emacs 
community is helpful, in particular. "Free" does not mean "Free beer", 
unless that is what you use to compensate others for giving up their 
"Free" time.

Here is the really good news:
Once you get this elisp working, you release it into the free software 
domain. Others *may* make it available, and it might even make its way 
into future releases of Emacs and XEmacs, making your feature standard.
Or, it might get picked up, and tweaked.

So here is a big hint:
Grab the code, from the version of X/Emacs, which works the way you 
want. See if you can not finish adapting it to the version you are 
working with, within a reasonable effort.
If there is a small, as in well defined problem, which is keeping you 
completing your dream feature, come back to the community with this, and 
I'm confident that you will reach your goals, else learn why they are 
infeasible.

Good Luck!