From:	CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 23-JUN-1989 14:23
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
Subj:	Re: GNU Emacs on VMS 5.1-1

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Date: 22 Jun 89 23:10:02 GMT
From: usc!orion.cf.uci.edu!iglesias@apple.com  (Mike Iglesias)
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Subject: Re: GNU Emacs on VMS 5.1-1
Message-Id: <2134@orion.cf.uci.edu>
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In article <8906221131.aa02531@Obelix.TWG.COM> warner@TWG.COM (WARNER LOSH) writes:
>	I just got GNU emacs working on VMS 5.1-1.  There is at least one
>problem.  When I don't have a terminal type defined via EMACS_TERMINAL,
>then I get an error message saying terminal type TERMCAP (whole lot of
>spaces) is not defined.  This is GNU Emacs 18.51 w/two patches in sysdep.c,
>compiled with VAXC 2.3 (or maybe 2.4???).  I linked it with the library,
>not the sharable image.  If I define a terminal type via EMACS_TERMINAL,
>then things seem to work ok.  I haven't had time to torture test it with
>the e-lisp code Dieter Muller developed for hacking "nice" looking 'C'
>code in the electric mode yet, so I don't know if it reliable, but it does
>seem to work ok.

You're getting bit by a feature of VAX C.  GNU Emacs does a getenv on 
'TERMCAP', so if you have a logical name or symbol TERMCAP defined, it
will try to use that as your termcap entry.  Look in TERMCAP.C and
find the line doing the getenv.  You can fix it one of two ways: change
"TERMCAP" to something else, or fix it with #ifdefs so that code
doesn't get executed on VMS.  Yes, it bit me too.  In general, people
using GNU Emacs should be aware that strange problems in GNU Emacs could
be the result of getenv and your having defined some logical/symbol
that's the same as some standard Unix environment variable.  I got
nailed by having a symbol "PWD" defined - the lisp code does a
getenv on PWD and it was messing filenames up because of it.

Don't bother asking FSF to fix it - they don't really care about VMS.

>BTW, does anyone know how to make EMACS into a CALLABLE EDITOR for MAIL
>Notes, etc?  I know that you need to do a complete init every time, but
>that sounds VERY EXPENSIVE.  Maybe it could just attach to a spawned
>EMACS or spawn you one.  Just some random thoughts here at midnight.

You can use mg (MicroGnuEmacs), which is smaller and doesn't carry
around the big lisp stuff.  It's pretty nice and compatable with
Gnu Emacs.  We use it a lot here for everyday editing - if we need
something fancy, we use GNU Emacs.


Mike Iglesias
University of California, Irvine

