Have a suggestion?

Click here to suggest a blog item.

Newsletters Archive

Catch up with DonationCoder by browsing our past newsletters, which collect the most interesting discussions on our site: here.

Editorial Integrity

DonationCoder does not accept paid promotions. We have a strict policy of not accepting gifts of any kind in exchange for placing content in our blogs or newsletters, or on our forum. The content and recommendations you see on our site reflect our genuine personal interests and nothing more.


Latest News

July 19, 2022
Software Update

Jan 3, 2022
Event Results

May 13, 2020
Software Updates

Mar 24, 2020
Mini Newsletter

Dec 30, 2019
Software Updates

Jan 22, 2020
Software Updates

Jan 12, 2020
Newsletter

Jan 3, 2020
Event Results

Jan 2, 2020
Software Updates

Dec 30, 2019
Software Updates

April 27, 2019
Software Updates

Feb 26, 2019
Software Updates

Feb 23, 2019
Software Updates

Feb 14, 2019
Software Updates

Jan 6, 2019
Event Results

Dec 2, 2018
Software Updates

Nov 13, 2018
Software Releases

July 30, 2018
Software Updates

June 24, 2018
Software Updates

June 6, 2018
Software Updates

Apr 2, 2018
Fundraiser Celebration

Apr 2, 2018
Software Updates

Feb 24, 2018
Software Updates

Jan 14, 2018
Major Site News

Jan 10, 2018
Event Results

Latest Forum Posts

Clipboard Help And Spell is the best free clipboard I have ever used.
It's simply and very convenient. Please support by donating to the creator.
John Smith
John Smith image

Our daily Blog

This page spotlights the most interesting posts collected from our forum every day.

You are viewing a specific blog item. Click here to return to the main blog page.

Mini review: The Acme editor on Debian on Windows

acme.png
Basic Info

App NameAcme
App URLhttp://acme.cat-v.org/
Supported OSesPlan 9, its forks (9atom, 9front, Harvey OS, JehanneOS et al.) and Inferno; UNIX, Linux and related operating systems are supported through plan9port. There is/was a Windows version called Acme-SAC but it does not seem to work on Windows 10 anymore.
Pricing SchemeThis is free software.
Reviewer Donation LinkGive me virtual money replacements.
Screencast Video URLhttps://www.youtube..../watch?v=dP1xVpMPn8M

Preface:

This is actually both a review and a tutorial. Please don't hurt me for partially ignoring the headline.

Intro:

After the UNIX 7th Edition which almost anything that claims to be "UNIX-like" is either based upon or inspired by had been released, the developers continued to work on it. However, the last three UNIX releases did not see much adoption: Between UNIX Version 7, released in 1979, and UNIX Version 8, released in 1985, the UCB's UNIX distribution BSD had been developed so far that it had more than twice of UNIX's system calls. In fact, the eighth UNIX was basically a reimported version of 4.1cBSD, modified to run on VAX computers.

Neither the 9th nor the 10th (and final) UNIX were ever released as a complete operating system, efforts to work on it were soon stopped in favor of what should have been UNIX's successor for operating systems research, named Plan 9 from Bell Labs, inspired by what was called "the worst movie of all times". (I will not link that.) The developers of Plan 9, mostly being recruited from the UNIX and C teams (among them, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson), continued from what they had: the graphical terminal Blit came in the 8th edition, Mk and the rc shell were there in the last UNIX version as well. Plan 9 tried to complete UNIX's approach of "everything is a file" by introducing the 9P protocol which acted as a replacement for regular APIs (including sockets and other device calls). Using the wikifs layer, even the Wikipedia could be edited as if it was a collection of files on the local machine. (Sadly, this layer does not seem to have been ported to other operating systems yet.)

Of course, since the 70s were over, the usual computer had a real screen instead of a printer and Apple, Amiga and Atari had successfully taken Xerox's revolutionary input device, the "mouse", out of obscurity by the mid-80s, this was what was considered the best way to interact with a computer: The Plan 9 operating system, including its text editors sam and acme, was developed to be used with a three-button mouse. The designers decided that light blue and light yellow were the best colors to stare at all day, so there was not much to configure. Theming was not a thing.

Click here to read the full mini-review now..



Share on Facebook