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Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

lem-project.github.io

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Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#31

Post by jfaz1 »

armchairhacker wrote: post #28

Does it use Common Lisp for scripts instead of Emacs Scheme? What other features does it have that give it an advantage over Emacs?

Pretty much. The whole thing (including scripts, packages, configuration, etc.) is written in CL, there's no C core (minus a bit of ffi here and there for e.g. shell interaction). This makes it really easy to modify the editor's source code while you're in it. Another bonus of everything being written in a general-purpose language like CL is that you can leverage any random CL library for your config/packages, and don't have to do janky stuff like lsp-bridge calling Python in order to have non-blocking completion.

Besides better defaults, it supports multithreading and launches instantly, feeling a lot snappier all-around. When I first started using lem, I basically just used it as a shell editor for non-code stuff like text/config files, since it started much faster than emacs (I don't like using the daemon) and had the same keybinds. At some point I started using common lisp for a personal project and it's become my main editor since. Development is also super active.

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#32

Post by globular-toast »

mplanchard wrote: post #2

Has anyone used this? I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to have an emacs-like editor written in such a way that it made performance and parallelism easier, especially around multithreading. A real killer feature would be some kind of emacs-lisp compatibility layer so that you could load existing third-party emacs modules, but I imagine the complexity of that is so off the charts that it would be…

I think every Emacs user has thought the same thing. The trouble is Emacs isn't the interpreter, it's the enormous amount of Lisp code written for that interpreter. This isn't the first CL Emacs and probably won't be the last. For a CL version to work you've got to be so good it attracts enough people over despite it being initially worse. But that group of existing Emacs users is already tiny and they spend enough of their time hacking Emacs... This one not being GPL doesn't help either.

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#33

Post by medo-bear »

kstrauser wrote: post #11
okasaki wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emacs is pretty snappy these days, what kind of performance problems are you seeing with it?

Especially with the native compilation in newer versions. Wow! That was a night and day difference. Before, I tolerated it. Now, I very rarely wait for anything.

I love Emacs and it has been my number one tool for a long time. It is definitely more efficient with native compilation but there are still some issues. For example, get a large code base and obtain all occurrences of an expression in the whole code base. Every IDE is going to stutter on this but Emacs will pretty much lock up until this completes.

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#35

Post by jfaz1 »

globular-toast wrote: post #32
mplanchard wrote: post #2

Has anyone used this? I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to have an emacs-like editor written in such a way that it made performance and parallelism easier, especially around multithreading. A real killer feature would be some kind of emacs-lisp compatibility layer so that you could load existing third-party emacs modules, but I imagine the complexity of that is so off the charts that it would be…

I think every Emacs user has thought the same thing. The trouble is Emacs isn't the interpreter, it's the enormous amount of Lisp code written for that interpreter. This isn't the first CL Emacs and probably won't be the last. For a CL version to work you've got to be so good it attracts enough people over despite it being initially worse. But that group of existing Emacs users is already tiny and they spend enough o…

To be fair, this project is not a CL Emacs. It's a separate editor doing its own thing that happens to share the same keybinds and a few architectural decisions.

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#36

Post by downut »

I took a look at it since I'm learning cl. lem doesn't appear to have a concept of emacs frames? I have all the HiDPI display area that I could ever want, and an fvwm-based emacs dev configuration evolved over 25 years. The feature mandatory to my (and only mine) dev happiness is to have overlapping emacs frames with the mouse used to rollover often barely visible frames to autofocus them when needed. My memory cache of which frames are important when is helped by where I place the frames on the screen. This is optimally efficient for me, it's a pleasure to work in.

Although I dearly loved terminal turbo pascal/c, I really detest tiling only window managers/apps.

I just built lem-sdl2 from git and I'm poking around the "Workspaces" "docs" and I'm not seeing what I need. Am I missing something? I'd say, "oh boy, so cool" if I am. If I am not missing something, darn.

[edit: make it clear I built the sdl2 variant on debian testing]

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#37

Post by HexDecOctBin »

BoingBoomTschak wrote: post #30

I'm watching it with attention but some stuff is concerning: * Some binaries in the source tree like https://github.com/lem-project/lem/tree/main/extensions/term... * Commit messages aren't really descriptive. * PRs and issues lingering in the void. * Working around the strange inferior process thing (cf https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1076 ) that could be replaced by uiop:launch-program when a tty/pty isn'…

Also, weird passive aggressiveness in the issue tracker without actually fixing the issue: https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1359

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#38

Post by MarceColl »

HexDecOctBin wrote: post #37
BoingBoomTschak wrote: post #30

I'm watching it with attention but some stuff is concerning: * Some binaries in the source tree like https://github.com/lem-project/lem/tree/main/extensions/term... * Commit messages aren't really descriptive. * PRs and issues lingering in the void. * Working around the strange inferior process thing (cf https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1076 ) that could be replaced by uiop:launch-program when a tty/pty isn'…

Also, weird passive aggressiveness in the issue tracker without actually fixing the issue: https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1359

He is japanese and I met him in the european lisp symposium. He doesn't speak english at all and he mostly uses automatic translation, any english weird thing or strange sentence can be probably attributed to that. He was very nice

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#39

Post by HexDecOctBin »

MarceColl wrote: post #38
HexDecOctBin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, weird passive aggressiveness in the issue tracker without actually fixing the issue: https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1359

He is japanese and I met him in the european lisp symposium. He doesn't speak english at all and he mostly uses automatic translation, any english weird thing or strange sentence can be probably attributed to that. He was very nice

I see, that explains it. Apologies for jumping to conclusions.

Re: Lem: Emacs-like editor written in Common Lisp

#40

Post by adamc »

MarceColl wrote: post #38
HexDecOctBin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, weird passive aggressiveness in the issue tracker without actually fixing the issue: https://github.com/lem-project/lem/issues/1359

He is japanese and I met him in the european lisp symposium. He doesn't speak english at all and he mostly uses automatic translation, any english weird thing or strange sentence can be probably attributed to that. He was very nice

Thank you for this kind of note... helps bring the humanity back to the faceless internet.
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