Are there any good editors for LISP programming, other than emacs?

Question

I'm looking for an alternative, since I find emacs difficult to use. I'd rather use an editor that supports all the usual shortcuts I'm used to, such as arrow keys to move the cursor around, CTRL+SHIFT+RightArrow to select the next word, etc.

Basically, I don't want to have to relearn all my familiar shortcuts just so I can use emacs.

Can anyone recommend a suitable editor?

Another thing - Notepad++ supports LISP syntax coloring, but it doesn't have an integrated LISP console like emacs does. Would it be fine to just have a Notepad++ window and a Command Line window open, side-by-side, and use the command-line whenever I want to run my program?

Answer 1

Use DrScheme. It has got all of the standard keybindings that you might expect. Here are my notes on using it. Yes, it is built for Scheme, but maybe it would work well for you.

Answer 2

There are those that say there are no good editors for anything, other than emacs. I'm sure you'll find a few of them here (although I'm a vim fan).

The vim macro language is a powerful one which can let you run external programs (including the one in the current edit buffer).

But, if you're used to Notepad++, you'll probably find it as hard to move to vim as you would to emacs, so maybe your proposed solution is the best one.

Answer 3

Take a look at this question

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22850/getting-started-with-lisp

One thing it mentions is CUSP which runs inside Eclipse.

Also if you are doing Scheme (you don't say which Lisp you are referring to), I second the recommendation of DrScheme.

Answer 4

Don't blaspheme boy.

In particular don't blaspheme by suggesting that there is any other editor for Lisp programming aside from emacs.

Answer 5

I suspect that nearly anyone that programs LISP will use emacs. You may be putting yourself at a disadvantage if you ever have to work with real LISP programmers.

Additionally, a good programmer should not be tied to any one editor. Learn to deal without Windows-based key acceleration.

Answer 6

Firstly, the arrow keys should work just fine on Emacs. (Emacs die-hards will tell you Ctrl-f/b/p/n are preferable, but you don't have to listen to them.) If they don't work by default, something is wrong.

Recent versions of Emacs come with cua-mode, which will make all the other common shortcuts like Ctrl-x/c/v for cut-copy-paste, shift-arrows to select, and so on work as well. If they don't work by default, type "M-x (that's Alt-x on most keyboards) cua-mode".

In general, if you want a particular keystroke to invoke a certain function, then type M-x global-set-key [hit Return] [hit the keystroke] [type name of function], e.g. M-x global-set-key RET [hit the down arrow] next-line RET.

Emacs was made for Lisp by Lisp programmers, and it is the best editor for Lisp simply on account of having been the standard Lisp editor for decades and having every idea for improvement been implemented.

Answer 7

The Zeus programmers editor has a configurable syntax highlighter so it should be possible to configure it for Lisp highlighting.

Zeus even has a Emacs keyboard emulation mode and is fully scriptable, but unfortunately it is not scriptable in Lisp ;)

Edited: In response Luís Oliveira comments: He's looking for a Lisp IDE.

Zeus does have project/workspace management, compiler/linker/tool support, class browsing, code completion, integrated version control, just like a lot of IDEs.

But Zeus is more than an IDE because it provides a lot of the functionality of an IDE without being tied to any one particular language, in fact just like Emacs.

Answer 8

In addition to CUSP, which has been mentioned, there's also ABLE, a relatively simple Lisp editor with REPL integration and stuff. Personally, I don't have experience using it as I'm happy with SLIME.

Answer 9

It's not just emacs you want to use, it's also SLIME. SLIME will let you connect to a Lisp REPL (running the Swank back-end). You can connect to a server process and start interacting with it. Take a look at the SLIME homepage

Answer 10

I'm undoubtedly a little late on this, but plain old vi(1) --- regular legacy vi --- works quite well, with paren matching and at least some basic s-exp stuff. Set up your EXRC to use

:set ai lisp aw

It's not SLIME, but it's something.

Answer 11

I tried for long to find a good editor for my scheme code besides emacs, but even with emacs tringer foubles, it was still the best. jEdit was the second best, but its kind of like saying that the choices between cake, sawdust and dirt, the sawdust was second best.

Emacs with paredit mode just owns for structured editing of s expressions. Add to that the highlight parens mode, and it gets even better.

The thing about using emacs, is that the editors extensions language is lisp, so it is a great way to learn lisp.

Answer 12

try McCLIM, newlisp

http://www.cliki.net/IDE

Answer 13

Some commercial Lisp systems (Allegro CL, LispWorks, Corman CL) are coming with their own editors. Typically one can choose between platform specific keybindings and Emacs-like keybindings.

Answer 14

Another thing - Notepad++ supports LISP syntax coloring, but it doesn't have an integrated LISP console like emacs does. Would it be fine to just have a Notepad++ window and a Command Line window open, side-by-side, and use the command-line whenever I want to run my program?

Yes! Take advantage of ASD though and just reload the system after making changes.

Don't restart your image every time.

Do try Eclipse/Cusp or Limp if you want REPL integration, though.

Answer 15

Try LispIDE. It's kind of rudimentary but may improve things a bit for you.

Answer 16

If you have a Mac, I would recommend Aquamacs, which is a beginner-friendly version of GNU-emacs, and therefore has all the power of emacs, while still offering "standard" copy-paste, save and other features, including normal file dialogs and windows.