X-Digest-Num: 237
Message-ID: <44114.237.1298.959273825@eGroups.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 10:06:16 +0200 (CEST)
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>
Subject: Re: Lojban word processor for Windows?
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On Sat, 18 Sep 1999 benny@netspace.net.au wrote:

> An idea for this might be to write a lojban-mode for Emacs. This would
> be a distinct disadvantage to non-Emacs users, but it would have a
> host of powerful resources to draw from. Also, as a blind user of
> Linux, I use Emacs all the time to get speech feedback. 

Any wordprocessor is disadvantaging to those who aren't used to it. Emacs
is maybe the least disadvantaging of all editing tools. Emacs runs on all
OSes and emulates user interfaces of various other editors. It has its
system-independent Lisp virtual machine, which was there about 10 years
before the Java Virtual Machine.

Of course the main tools, such as parser / glosser and lookup commands
should probably be written as standalone applications in some language
better than Emacs Lisp (imho Emacs Lisp is already much better suited
to the task than Turbo Pascal or C, but Scheme, Haskell and Prolog should be
even better).  Also, the data themselves should be in a format that makes
them independent, such as perhaps SGML/XML (with a certain DTD), and
for fast lookup, they should be put into a secondary database format.

Probably providing the data is the most tedious part.

-phm