elisp -> Python (was Re: [OT] Emacs, Eclipse, Leo (was Re: IDE

[François Pinard]

[Ville Vainio]

> How about just reusing the elisp interpreter in its C form, wrapping
> it as a python library and tweaking it enough to make it store all
> objects in the python object space?

Go for it, then! :-)

> Seriously, is Vim as customizable/programmable in python as emacs is
> in elisp? If that is the case, I'm switching too...

Emacs Lisp is deeply soldered into Emacs internals.  Vim has its own
language, which people sometimes call Vimscript, similarly tightened
into Vim.  My feeling is that Emacs Lisp allows for a more intimate
handling of edit buffers and external processes than Vimscript does, yet
this intimacy has a price in complexity, so all totalled, they may be
perceived as comparable for most practical purposes.

Pymacs allows customising Emacs with Python instead of Emacs Lisp, and
then runs Python as a process external to Emacs, with a communication
protocol between both processes.  Python may be built into Vim, and then
both Python and Vim use a single process.  The same as Pymacs gives
access to almost all of Emacs Lisp, Python within Vim gives access to
almost all of Vimscript, but with a smaller overhead than Pymacs.

Pymacs is not Emacs Lisp, and Python in Vim is not Vimscript either,
tweaks are needed in both cases for accessing some of the underlying
scripting facilities.  Pymacs is rather elegant, Python in Vim is rather
clean.  Python itself is both elegant and clean, but one strong point of
Python for me is the legibility, which builds deeper roots on the clean
side than on the elegant side.  All in all, despite I know how debatable
it can be, I guess I now have a prejudice towards Python in Vim.

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard