Re: DrScheme as Emacs-like kitchen sink

[Matthias Felleisen <matthias@ccs.neu.edu>]

Bill, 

the original goal of producing DrScheme is to provide a gui-based 
interactive PDE for Scheme that assists beginners in learning CS 
concepts. 

We believe that we have gotten very close to this goal. 

The second goal is to provide a gui-based pde for mature programmers 
who produce scrips and projects in Scheme. Scripting covers the whole 
range: shell, cgi, com, and a few more. Projects refers to the fact that
programmers produce systems that consist of many hundreds of components. 
Both, scripts and projects, need serious tool support. 

We are not there yet with this second goal. Some of our current researach
is aimed at doing these things right. 

Here are two non-goals: 
 * an environment with multi-programmer support 
 * an all-purpose editing tool 

Having said that, you could use Robby's framework to develop an Emacs-like
tool in Scheme. No questions asked. We can support you in general
ways. Others on the list may join in. We don't have the manpower to give
you more support than that. 

Finally, you may wish to look into a project by Mike Sperber @
Tuebingen. He's interested in porting the XEmacs code base from Emacs Lisp
to Scheme. At the most recent ICFP, he also presented a paper on this
general topic. It's neat stuff that a mathematician like you might just
appreciate. 

-- Matthias