Epsilon (text editor)

Last updated

Epsilon is a programmer's text editor modelled after Emacs.[ citation needed ] It resembles Emacs not only in its default keybindings and layout, but also in the fact that it has a Turing-complete extension language in which much of its functionality is implemented. EEL (Epsilon Extension Language) [1] is a dialect of C rather than a dialect of Lisp. Epsilon runs on MS-DOS compatible operating systems, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and OS/2.

Contents

Epsilon is a commercial product sold by Lugaru Software. It was first released in 1984, long before Emacs was available on personal computers. It was also the first IBM PC text editor to allow editing of files that larger than available RAM, and one of the first to allow running programs (such as compilers) in the background while allowing editing to proceed concurrently. [2]

Epsilon supports Unicode but does not display characters outside the BMP and cannot handle right-to-left scripts. It can convert among dozens of character encodings.

Reception

BYTE in 1989 listed Epsilon as among the "Distinction" winners of the BYTE Awards, especially praising EEL. [3]

Related Research Articles

The editor war is the rivalry between users of the Emacs and vi text editors. The rivalry has become an enduring part of hacker culture and the free software community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emacs Lisp</span> Dialect of Lisp in the Emacs text editor

Emacs Lisp is a Lisp dialect made for Emacs. It is used for implementing most of the editing functionality built into Emacs, the remainder being written in C, as is the Lisp interpreter.

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger. Some IDEs, such as IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse and Lazarus contain the necessary compiler, interpreter or both; others, such as SharpDevelop and NetBeans, do not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Text editor</span> Computer software used to edit plain text documents

A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software. Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to change files such as configuration files, documentation files and programming language source code.

vi (text editor) Keyboard-oriented text editor

vi is a screen-oriented text editor originally created for the Unix operating system. The portable subset of the behavior of vi and programs based on it, and the ex editor language supported within these programs, is described by the Single Unix Specification and POSIX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XEmacs</span>

XEmacs is a graphical- and console-based text editor which runs on almost any Unix-like operating system as well as Microsoft Windows. XEmacs is a fork, based on a version of GNU Emacs from the late 1980s. Any user can download, use, and modify XEmacs as free software available under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.

BASIC09 is a structured BASIC programming language dialect developed by Microware on behalf of Motorola for the then-new Motorola 6809 CPU and released in February 1980. It is primarily used with the OS-9 operating system, released in 1979. Microware also released a version for OS-9/68k on the 68000 as Microware BASIC.

A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines of electronic text. A text file exists stored as data within a computer file system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comma-separated values</span> File format used to store data

Comma-separated values (CSV) is a text file format that uses commas to separate values, and newlines to separate records. A CSV file stores tabular data in plain text, where each line of the file typically represents one data record. Each record consists of the same number of fields, and these are separated by commas in the CSV file. If the field delimiter itself may appear within a field, fields can be surrounded with quotation marks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macintosh Programmer's Workshop</span> Software development package for the Classic Mac OS

Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) is a software development environment for the Classic Mac OS operating system, written by Apple Computer. For Macintosh developers, it was one of the primary tools for building applications for System 7.x and Mac OS 8.x and 9.x. Initially MPW was available for purchase as part of Apple's professional developers program, but Apple made it a free download after it was superseded by CodeWarrior. On Mac OS X it was replaced by the Project Builder IDE, which eventually became Xcode.

jEdit Cross platform text editor

jEdit is a free software text editor available under GPL-2.0-or-later. It is written in Java and runs on any operating system with Java support, including BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Source-code editor</span> Text editor specializing in software code

A source-code editor is a text editor program designed specifically for editing source code of computer programs. It may be a standalone application or it may be built into an integrated development environment (IDE).

This article provides basic comparisons for notable text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.

Sprint is a text-based word processor for MS-DOS, first published by Borland in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brief (text editor)</span> 1980s programmers text editor

Brief, is a once-popular programmer's text editor in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was originally released for MS-DOS, then IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. The Brief interface and functionality live on, including via the SourceForgeGRIEF editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Emacs</span> GNU version of the Emacs text editor

GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU project and a flagship project of the free software movement.

Emacs, originally named EMACS, is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor". Development of the first Emacs began in the mid-1970s, and work on GNU Emacs, directly descended from the original, is ongoing; its latest version is 29.4 , released June 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scripting language</span> Programming language designed for scripting

In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. Scripting language or script language describes a programming language that is used for scripting.

MINCE is a text editor, originally created for 8080-based microcomputers running the CP/M operating system. Later versions of MINCE were available for GEMDOS on the Atari ST, VAX/VMS, RSX-11, and various flavors of Unix.

References

  1. ↑ Lugaru.com
  2. ↑ "Advertisement: Epsilon by Lugaru Software, Ltd. The most advanced, customizable programmer's editor you can buy". Dr. Dobb's Journal. May 1986. p. 33.
  3. ↑ "The BYTE Awards". BYTE. January 1989. p. 327.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.