[oclug] Seeking GUI text editor that works

[Kevin McLauchlan]

On Fri, 2002-03-29 at 17:51, Brenda J. Butler wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 08:08:19PM -0500, Charles MacDonald wrote:
> > Another concern is that my wife is still looking for a replacement for 
> > the IDE from  Visual C before I can get her to give up on WIN95, so 
> > getting this problem solved is a prerequisite for my next Linux 
> > demonstration for her.
> 
> I don't suppose she'd go for emacs.  You can compile and run
> programs from within emacs, as well as edit them.  You can
> also debug and put files into/extract them from source
> repositories.  Syntax colouring... calls to etags.... etc.

I sniffed at emacs some years ago, but it's always seemed 
like a star-wars missile system, when all I needed was a 
slingshot, but my needs will be changing soon... 

Are xemacs and gemacs (and whatever) "real" emacs?

That is, are they full-blown, recent-release, mainstream emacs 
with merely a girly-man gui stuck on the front (for linux doofuses 
and gui users like me...  :-), or are they some trimmed-down 
"emacs-lite" variants that don't have the true power under the hood?

I'm asking in particular because I may soon be taking on Docbook 
for my work, and I've had emacs recommended to me because there 
are apparently s**tloads of ready-made macros and extensions to 
make life easy and productive with Docbook.

Any comments and advice from the experienced would be welcome.

Thanks for your time, and happy Easter or Passover (if/as applicable).

/kevin