new version of ELSE - Emacs Language Sensitive Editor mode

[Peter Milliken]

Emacs Language Sensitive Editor (ELSE) v1.21 has been released at:

http://home.exetel.com.au/peterm

Please note that after many years of happy service, I have changed my ISP
(because they don't offer wireless broadband) and so the URL to ELSE has
changed. Please update your bookmarks accordingly.

This is a combined bug-fix release and feature release. Changes are
relatively minor. The 'high-points' wrt features changes are:

1. Addition of keywords in template definition language to allow the user to
call Elisp functions during various "phases" of template use/expansion (see
manual relating to the /RUN_CODE attribute).

2. New defuns - else-show-token-names and else-show-placeholder-names.

3. Addition of the /FOLLOW and /NOFOLLOW attributes to the template
definition language - these attributes relate to having nested menu
definitions 'follow' or not to successfully lower levels automatically in
the menu display/selection list. Again, see the manual for a better
definition of new functionality.

4. Addition of a new supporting utility (expand-a-word.el) to ELSE which
allows TOKEN names to be "completed" i.e. if you have several TOKENS, say
DEFUN and DEFALIAS then expanding the string def will provide a menu
selection of the two possible completions. Note that expand-a-word.el can be
used as a stand-alone routine in its own right - it provides "abbreviation"
expansion of text within the current buffer i.e. if the word "possible" is
anywhere in the current buffer and you type "po<expand-a-word>" then all
words that start with the string "po" will be offered in a menu as possible
completions, if there is only one choice then the full text will be
duplicated. The menu system used is the same used by ELSE when selecting
possible choices and I find it more user friendly than the system offered as
default by Emacs.

What is ELSE?

ELSE is a code template mode somewhat similar to skeleton.el or template.el
but has a completely different look and feel to how the template definitions
are defined and used. It has more powerful features than either of these
modes that are included with Emacs and offers a viable alternative to users
who don't want to learn Elisp or Elisp like syntax to create new code
templates. In my opinion the templates are more flexible and the entire
system is far less "intrusive" to the programmer - ELSE blends into Emacs
almost perfectly.

ELSE is modelled after a feature found in the LSE editor that was used on
VMS systems for many years. Users have successfully "ported" language
template files from LSE installations to use with Emacs and ELSE (the
web-site references some of these ports).

Unlike many Emacs packages, it comes with a comprehensive users manual - so
there is no need to 'read the code Luke!' :-) Unlike skeleton.el and
template.el you don't have to "know" Elisp to be able to write template
definitions - the definition system is completely unlike Elisp and doesn't
depend on getting all of those closing parenthesis in the right place!

Prompt support is just an email away. I am happy to help users get up to
speed with ELSE's features or to customise and/or develop language
templates.

Regards
Peter