CuspA Lisp plugin for Eclipse
What is it?
Cusp is a development environment for Lisp built on top of the Eclipse platform. It runs SBCL and hooks into the Swank half of Slime. It provides a repl, project manager, an outline of your code for simple navigation, code editor, syntax highlighting, auto-indentation, parenthesis matching, auto-completion, library management, and more.
Cusp is both free of charge and free of warranty (however, if you're itching to be parted from your money, there is a tip jar). It is developed by Tim Jasko, Sergey Kolos, and others.
Further questions can be answered at the FAQ or cusp-development@googlegroups.com.
Additionally, Sergey Kolos has a Cusp tutorial, where you may also find fresher builds
Download version 1.0, released July 6, 2009 (Changelog)
Getting Started
- Make sure you have the latest version of Eclipse running under Java 5.
- Download the appropriate version of Cusp for your operating system and unzip it into the plugins folder in the Eclipse directory.
- Unzip it. Copy the stuff from the plugins folder into Eclipse's plugins directory. Then copy the stuff from the features folder into Eclipse's features folder. Start Eclipse. Go to Window > Open Perspective > Other... and choose Lisp.
- Right click in the Lisp Navigator and select New > Project. Choose Lisp Project in the wizard, give it a name of your chosing and hit Finish.
- Open the Lisp file in the project you just created and code away!
Screenshots
Autocompletion
Docstring & Parameter hints
Macro expansion
Why Cusp?
Because EcLisp, however clever the name might have been, was already taken.
Why use Cusp?
There are many reasons you might prefer to use Cusp over Slime, including but not limited to:
- You're just starting with Lisp, and don't want to go through the many-step process of downloading and building sbcl, doing a cvs checkout of Slime, Installing Emacs, and then setting everything up to work together.
- Project management. It really is nice to have.
- It's pretty.
- You hate Emacs.
Of course, there are certainly reasons to prefer Slime:
- You're used to it already.
- RSI builds character.
- You love Emacs.
Handy Key Shortcuts
All commands can be seen in the "Lisp" menu when you have a Lisp file open. Still, here's a quick reference to the most handy ones:
- Alt+C - Compile current expression
- Alt+K - Compile current file
- Alt+. - Go to the definition of the current symbol
- Alt+H - Open the Hyperspec definition of the current symbol
- Alt+U - Undefine the current symbol
While in the Repl, use Ctrl+P and Ctrl+N to move through the history of commands you have sent. Or just click the history button and find them in the menu.