>> at the cost of stepping all over the rest of the (Plan 9) system > > >?
To get the best use out of acme you need to arrange for it to capture a lot of plumber rules (or arrange to maintain multiple sets of rules for acme and not-acme). Because of the way acme manages windows, programs often need to keep track of (and handle) whether or not they are running inside acme. Finally, acme does not support some common features provided by rio (like hold mode), which means even some text-based programs (like upas/marshal) aren't fully functional. Everything acme touches requires special hand-holding. Conceptually, it is the opposite of the tools approach to software. As I said, this can be convenient on a UNIX system that otherwise lacks the features provided by rio, but on Plan 9, where most of this stuff is otherwise already available, it requires a great deal of commitment to the acme grab-it-all philosophy. Sometimes, you don't want to carry the kitchen sink on your back. sl
