[Ma-linux] [Dclug] Strange Emacs Lisp behavior

[Aaron M. Ucko]

Alan McConnell <alan at patriot.net> writes:

> 	Do you do this within Emacs?  I tried this here(I'm using
> 	emacs -nw as my mutt editor) and "C-h" is the same as <---,
> 	i.e. delete the previous character.

I'd recommend adjusting your terminal to send an ASCII DEL (code 127) as
the erase character, at which point your dotfiles can run

    stty erase ^?

to reflect that setting.

> 	first three are pretty faithful CL implementations;  elisp
> 	and rep are quirky, IMHO.

elisp diverged from other LISP dialects decades ago; its cl package
provides rudimentary CL compatibility, but doesn't even attempt to
support the full standard.  (It couldn't properly do so anyway; elisp is
dynamically scoped like the earliest LISP versions, whereas normal CL
variables are lexically scoped, and emulation is only really feasible in
the reverse direction.)

rep is newer, but more or less descended from elisp, and as such shares
some of its quirks, though it does also borrow from CL and Scheme ("the
uncommon LISP"), which you might also find of interest.  Several Scheme
implementations exist, the most learner-friendly probably being PLT
Scheme, available in the drscheme and mzscheme packages in etch.
(mzscheme supplies the basic framework; drscheme adds an IDE and, IIRC,
more libraries, particularly GUI-related.)

> Thanks to all!

No problem; happy hacking!

-- 
Aaron M. Ucko, KB1CJC (amu at alum.mit.edu, ucko at debian.org)
http://www.mit.edu/~amu/ | http://stuff.mit.edu/cgi/finger/?amu@monk.mit.edu