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Acme for Windows

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-doing-fun-things dept.

jacoplane writes "You may remember Rob Pike from his Slashdot interview. Since his interview, his two-dimensional text editors have experienced many improvements and ports including license improvements. A port to Inferno has been around for awhile. Recently a standalone version has been made for Windows based on the Inferno port. Linux users are in luck as the native port is now legally distributable."

8 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Acme sucks! by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...just ask Wile E. Coyote!

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
    1. Re:Acme sucks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ...just ask Wile E. Coyote!

      But yet he continues to buy from them. Just like a Microsoft user.

      Not that there is anything wrong with that...

  2. Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Acme is a text editor and shell from the Plan 9 operating system, designed and implemented by Rob Pike. It can use the sam command language. The design of the interface was influenced by Oberon. It is different from other editing environments in that it acts as a 9P server. A distinctive element of the interface is mouse chording.
    ...I'm sorry, but I read your wikipedia link and I still have no idea what this program is supposed to be :O

    I read this and I imagine Data saying "Captain. I have an idea. If we reverse the tachyon coefficient to the digital anomoly drives, we can invert the neutrino wave probe." And Patrick Stewart says, "Do it."
    1. Re:Wait, what? by shish · · Score: 2, Funny
      the "everything's a file" thing being carried to its ultimate conclusion.

      "cat ~/comment.txt > /dev/gui/firefox/slashdot/comment_input_box"? Come to think of it, that *would* be awesome :O

      --
      I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
  3. Re:wmii by Vo0k · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you like acme, check out wmii, a window manager inspired by acme (amongst other things). It is incredibly innovative, and version 3 was just released.

    One of the new features: You can move blocks of text by waving your mouse in air in specific manner, throwing the block of text a specific distance in the file depending on the strenth you swing the mouse.

    --
    Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
  4. 3D? by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    his two-dimensional text editors

    How does it differ from a three-dimensional text editor? Is that one where the letters get stuck in your nose such that you have to grab a Kleenex if you make a typo?

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    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:3D? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      and pop-up blockers become a physical safety feature.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  5. Excels in one area by kahei · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is quite simply the hardest software to pick up and figure out I have EVER encountered -- and I'm a pretty advanced user of vim _and_ developer studio. I can honestly say that in 20 minutes of playing around I had not yet established what the application was for.

    Right click on the help link, 'acme(1)' and a window comes up called "/+ Error Del Snarf | Look". Hmm, I'd like to get rid of that. Click on the little box in the corner of the window. The window gets bigger -- not really big, just a _bit_ bigger! Ok, try right clicking on the little box. Now the window is really big! Further right clicks do nothing, but now a _left_ click makes it smaller again and I can see the window I started with, which is now only 1 line high. Try to drag the window divider -- no effect. Left click 'Del', right click 'del', double click on the window divider -- you can make it change size a bit but you can't close it.

    Restart application and this time remember to _not_ click on the help link. Try to select text with middle mouse button because apparrently that 'executes' it in some way. Incomprehensible, uncloseable window reappears -- but THIS time it has a long list of lines starting with a # character in it! How to make it go away... maybe click left AND right buttons on the title bar? Er... I have now pasted some text into the title bar of the window. I edit it to say 'Del Snarf' again -- but something seems to have broken now. Better restart.

    And so it goes.

    Brilliant! I'm not actually going to try and use this ever again (because it's pre-alpha, it doesn't seem to do anything vim doesn't, and it's too mouse-driven), but it is one of my favorite pieces of software anyway because at least it's not just unix/java/lisp/MSVC 4.0 redone. It's something totally, utterly different.

    And it is sooooooo haaaaaard to uuuuuuse! Ah, I love it, but I love it in an 'I am going to delete you now' kind of way!

    --
    Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.