#18 Modify HOWTO setup on Win->CygWin

[Anonymous]

The step-by-step HOWTO set up a Common Lisp IDE,
centering on several modes of Emacs interaction, with
multiple options for CL implementations on Windows
(and Mac) is excellent. But I'm hoping to use Lisp and
Emacs as my bridge away from Windows -- how about CygWin?

What I would really like would be a similarly detailed
and keystroke-specific and explicit HOWTO that might
help foster my slow transition to Unix, via the
discipline of first mastering Emacs and Common Lisp in
their preferred POSIX environment. (Of course I should
just bite the bullet and dive in with Debian, for its
easily apt-getable CL packages, but with a 32 MB
Pentium 100 MHz running Allegro Common Lisp and Emacs,
I question whether any recent Linux could even run what
I need. Bash is another matter, I know I need to learn
that, too, and I'm happy to learn the shell while
looking for a job to finance a hardware upgrade. I
have another hand-me-down machine, with 64 MB RAM and a
whopping 4 GB free, so I may be able to squeeze
Libranet on it and have a newbie-friendly Debian
install running icewm on 64 MB. That may be able to
run Emacs and CLisp and perhaps CMUCL as well, with or
without X. Point is: CygWin is still relevant for the
hardware and financially challenged, not to mention
those in MS shops, and, frankly, insecure but wannabe
newbies, even in this day of Knoppix. And the Cygwin
documentation is not what Windozed users need to make
the break.)

I've tried with CygWin -- setup.exe is easy enough --
and can run bash and Emacs and CLisp as well, but I
simply can't understand getting X to work (and don't
think I should have to work this hard to get a
scrollbar) and I remain baffled on the numerous options
for getting Emacs and various implementations of CL to
talk to one another. This very uninteresting setup (to
me -- I appreciate the fascination it may present to
others) is all totally new and these installation
snafus are frankly a shitty introduction to a language
and programming environment that come highly touted by
many people I respect. Perhaps someone might rewrite
the following exemplary HOWTO for those who want to
sample multiple open source CL implementations and
Emacs modes (including SLIME) on CygWin, or probably
not at all.

http://cl-cookbook.sourceforge.net/windows.html#Mac%20OS%20X%20Setup%20Instructions

Thank you. Yet another Lisp newbie.