Re: ISO fast-loading Emacs

[Floyd L. Davidson]

kj <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> wrote:
>One feature of my shell (zsh) that I particularly like is the
>command edit-command-line, which lets one edit the current command
>line in $EDITOR (or $VISUAL).  I'd like to do this with Emacs but
>my current version of Emacs takes so long to load that it is not
>practical for such on-the-fly editing.
>
>All I need is bare-bones Emacs for this.  It would be nice to also
>get syntax highlighting with shell-script-mode, though I'm willing
>to sacrifice this for the sake of speed.
>
>What should I put in $EDITOR to achieve the fastest loading Emacs?
>Is there an Emacs-lite out there?
>
>Thanks!

There are at least two options, but you may or may not like either of
these:

  1) Use bash instead of zsh, and you can edit the command line
     using emacs (or vi if you so desire) editing commands built
     into the shell.  (Lacking any obvious reason not to, I
     truely do not see why this would not be an solution!)

  2) Use either Emacs or XEmacs in server mode, and set your
     $EDITOR variable to "gnuclient".  It will start virtually
     in an instant.

You'll probably reject the first option out of hand, for
whatever reason it is that you use zsh.  There is no accounting
for (bad) taste, so I won't pester you on that decision.  (You
are free to assume that *I* am the one with bad taste, of
course!)

The second option you might look into a bit, and then decide it
is too complicated, or that your results are not slick enough.
It is *well* worth the effort!  Rather than toss the idea out, I
would suggest that you read up on it, give it a try, and at the
point where things get sticky, post a few questions here and get
help.  I can just about guarantee that once you have it working
you'll *love* it for several reasons, only one of which will be
that it starts fast.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson            <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@apaflo.com