Plan9 Acme Intro - Part 1

22K views · 16 years ago · demo · intermediate · dated

A screencast introduction to Acme, the text editor and user interface from Plan 9, shown in use. It demonstrates how Acme leans on mouse clicks for cut, copy, paste, search and running commands instead of menus and keyboard shortcuts.

HN people point to it as the quickest way to see Acme's mouse-driven workflow, which commenters say is hard to explain and easier to watch.

3 comments from Hacker News

r
@rsc2012 · in “Xiki: A shell console with GUI features.”
▶ this video is a good intro.
RecommendsView on HN
j
@jff2012 · in “Plan 9: The way the future was”
Regarding acme, everyone comes in and goes "Yuck, you mean I can't type 'C-c M-x undoify'?" However, once you get used to it, it's actually rather nice. I have something like 30-40 files open in acme right now, and I find it far, far easier to manage open buffers than in Emacs. Arranging and re-arranging buffers (to use the emacs term, since it's familiar) is very convenient and helps me keep things organized. It also has "mouse shortcuts" (chords) that tend to reward using the mouse more--meaning you don't need to switch from mouse to keyboard as often, because you can do cut, copy, paste, search, command execution, etc. all with a click of the mouse (and no hunting through menus, either). It's hard to explain... you really have to use Acme, or even better, watch someone use it. ▶ this video seems to be a decent intro, although I haven't had time to watch the whole thing yet.
RecommendsView on HN
f
@fogus2010 · in “Plan9 Acme Intro (video)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
RecommendsView on HN