Switch to XEmacs and fish
On this first of April, the main Haiku developers wish to announce an important change that will likely increase user friendliness of the overall Haiku experience. We are a bit late to report the news due to the excitement and the required planification work, but we hope everyone will enjoy the move.
First, many system applications will be replaced by XEmacs, which is already being ported to Haiku:
- StyledEdit
- Pe
- Terminal
- WebPositive will be replaced by W3 which is integrated into XEmacs
- ActivityMonitor is no longer needed thanks to Meta-x display-time RET
- Debugger will be dumped in favor or gdb running in a shell buffer
- Icons will now be using the XPM format for which XEmacs has a mode for, removing the need for Icon-o-Matic
- Installer will be replaced by an insanely complex Lisp script
- Mail function will be largely replaced by the GNUS mode
- MediaPlayer will not be required for audio files, since XEmacs has the ability to play audio
- XEmacs will bring new games to Haiku, including a Tetris game
- Tracker will not be really useful anymore since Meta-x dired RET is so much simpler
- AboutSystem will be integrated into Meta-x about RET
- And finally Haiku users will be healthier computer users now thanks to Meta-x doctor RET
While removing those applications might not balance the required space for XEmacs, we believe it is for the greater good.
Also, since we believe Haiku to be powerful enough to rival the technology created by the Ancients, the default font will be changed to anquietas.ttf to help all the smart people that Haiku users are to learn the language of the creators of the stargate.
Here is a screenshot giving you an idea of what the new Haiku desktop will look like, including a brand new color scheme thanks to our Theme Manager:
Haiku users will finally be able to exercise all the keys on their keyboard, including Escape, Meta, Alt, Control, Shift.
Moreover, in order to make terminal interaction easier on the user, the default shell will be changed to the Friendly Interactive Shell (fish). Likely this new setup will help users feel welcome to our wonderful operating system !
Comments
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
This has to be the best news I've heard from Haiku yet! Xemacs is easy to program and, therefore, easy to learn. And with but one interface to learn for all programs, it should be readily adopted the world over. In fact, I envision governments and sports sanctioning bodies being the primary adopters; the new Haiku will enable them to churn out ever more incomprehensible rules, laws and regulations with efficiency to boggle the mind! Even GNU/Linux's new Canterbury Project, aimed at unifying a number of distributions, is just too little and far too late; Haikumacs is a universe apart; failure just isn't in the cards. Congratulations to the Team! And keep up the great work!
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
Hehehehe, good to see us take part in April 1st antics.
Though fish doesn't sound all that bad, I may have to try it out!
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
Yeah I tried porting fish but it had some weird deps so didn't finish.
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
Actually, fish totally would make sense for haiku...
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
ROFLMAO
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
*Planification*. Non-word. What is wrong with using the perfectly good English word "planning"?
Sign.
American English, all too often, when there is a simple solution (example, vetinary surgeon) takes the made, complex, unpronouncable solution, "veterinarian"), or in this case, rather than using the existing word "planning", creates a non-word "planification".
Good grief.
And this, from geeks. Even more disappointing.
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
Probably because I'm not english-native (it's valid french) :^)
Or maybe just cause it was 2am and I didn't proofread enough.
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
I am really disappointed at the move to XEmacs. Unless you have a version which I haven't seen, the cryptic nature of this suite is a turnoff of the the greatest magnitude. I, for one, am sorry to see such a path for Haiku.
RL
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
If this posting is just a stupid April fools joke, then it should be removed immediately! It is completely unprofessional and wastes the time of (and confuses the hell out of) people looking for real Haiku news!
April fools nonsense might be fine on April 1, but not left on the official news list for months.
(also, original post date is April 2 when using GMT)
Re: Switch to XEmacs and fish
It obviously a joke. You can't possibly think that they were serious.