On Sat, Sep 19, 2026, at 13:14, Carl Distefano wrote: > I'd appreciate it if you could enumerate the "immediately usable > components". It would be helpful since it's evident that most users > have no inclination or need to delve any further. (I get it. Vita > brevis.) I don't really have a list. I've just found that when I look something up (not having previous experience with XyWrite scripting commands) I can use it right away. I suspect others with a minimum of general procedural language programming knowledge can do the same. There of course have been many editors with scripting languages (does anyone remember the obscure but fantastic Aurora for DOS by Jeff Wunderlich?) which were as easy to use, but they didn't have the amazing breadth and depth of XyScript. And to get back to Emacs and (E)lisp, well, lisp requires rechanneling your thinking. And the fact that using Emacs beyond the very basics requires at least enough knowledge to program a startup file raises the barrier to entry. Elisp is easily as broad and deep as XyScript-ing but much more difficult to access until familiarity is gained, and that does not come overnight. But as you asked for a concrete instance, here's one by example. (setq hello-world (shell-command-to-string "/bin/echo hello-world")) in Elisp as opposed to a simple XV command in XyScript: XV hello-word /bin/echo hello-world with the further benefit of no parens to balance! -- Bob Newell Honolulu