Acme is a

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...

and graphical

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

from the

Plan 9 from Bell Labs Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system which originated from the Computing Science Research Center (CSRC) at Bell Labs in the mid-1980s and built on UNIX concepts first developed there in the late 1960s. Since 2000, Plan 9 has ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, designed and implemented by

Rob Pike Robert Pike (born 1956) is a Canadian programmer and author. He is best known for his work on the Go programming language while working at Google and the Plan 9 operating system while working at Bell Labs, where he was a member of the Unix t ...

. It can use the Sam command language. The design of the interface was influenced by

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairy, fairies in Middle Ages, medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania ...

. It is different from other editing environments in that it acts as a 9P server. A distinctive element of the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

mouse chording Mouse chording is the capability of performing actions when multiple mouse buttons are held down, much like a chorded keyboard and similar to mouse gestures. One common application of mouse chording, called ''rocker navigation'', is found in Op ...

Overview

Acme can be used as a

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and news reader, or as a frontend to wikifs. These applications are made possible by external components interacting with acme through its file system interface. Rob Pike has mentioned that the name "Acme" was suggested to him by

Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Magic (illusion), magician, actor, comedian, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller (magician), Teller as half of the t ...

Penn & Teller Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since 1975. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic. The duo has bee ...

during a movie night at

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

when he asked for a suitable name for a text editor that does "everything".

Ports

A port to the Inferno operating system is part of Inferno's default distribution. Inferno can run as an application on top of other operating systems, allowing Inferno's port of acme to be used on most operating systems, including

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. A project called ''acme: stand alone complex'' intends to make acme run as a standalone application on the host operating system. A working port of acme for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X, *nix or *NIX) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Uni ...

operating systems is included in

Plan 9 from User Space Plan 9 from User Space (also plan9port or p9p) is a Porting, port of many Plan 9 from Bell Labs libraries and applications to Unix-like operating systems. Currently it has been tested on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, macOS, Fr ...

, a collection of various ported programs from Plan 9. Currently it has been tested on a variety of

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

including:

Mac OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free software, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking NetBSD ...

Solaris Solaris is the Latin word for sun. It may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Sol ...

and

SunOS SunOS is a Unix-branded operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems from 1982 until the mid-1990s. The ''SunOS'' name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4, which were based ...

Notable Acme users

Dennis Ritchie Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011) was an American computer scientist. He created the C programming language and the Unix operating system and B language with long-time colleague Ken Thompson. Ritchie and Thomp ...

*Russ Cox *

(Acme creator) *Brian L. Stuart

References

External links

* * , the manuals.
Plan 9 from User Space
(aka plan9port) is a port of many Plan 9 programs from their native Plan 9 environment to

operating systems, including Mac OS X.
acme stand alone complex
- A distribution of the Inferno version of acme packaged for Windows, OS X and Linux and including many extras and tools (an IRC client, a wiki client, a web browser, a debugger, etc.)
Russ Cox demonstrating Acme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acme (Text Editor) Free text editors Plan 9 from Bell Labs Inferno (operating system) MacOS text editors Unix text editors

Overview

Ports

Notable Acme users

See also

References

External links