Emacs

Emacs is a special kind of text editor that helps people write and edit documents on computers. It is famous for being very flexible and customizable, meaning users can change it to fit their own needs. The most popular version today is called GNU Emacs, which is always being updated to add new features.

Emacs has thousands of built-in commands, and users can combine these commands to create shortcuts called macros. This makes repetitive tasks much easier. One of the cool things about Emacs is that it uses a programming language called Lisp, which lets users create new tools and applications right inside the editor. People have made extensions for Emacs to help with many tasks, like managing files, sending e-mail, and even playing simple games like Tetris.

The first version of Emacs was created in 1976 by David A. Moon and Guy L. Steele Jr.. It started as a set of extra commands for another editor called TECO. Later, Richard Stallman developed GNU Emacs as part of the GNU Project, making it a free and open source tool that many people around the world use today.

History

Emacs, a powerful text editor, started in the 1970s at the MIT AI Lab. It was developed from TECO, an older editor that worked in special modes. Richard Stallman saw a better editor called E at Stanford AI Lab and brought its ideas back. He improved TECO by adding macros—shortcuts to repeat tasks—and created a system where users could easily customize the editor.

The editor was named EMACS, standing for Editing MACroS. It became very popular and was used by many computer scientists. Over time, it evolved into different versions, with GNU Emacs being one of the most well-known today.

Implementations

Programmers created many editors inspired by Emacs for different computers. Some early examples include EINE and ZWEI, developed for Lisp machines, and Multics Emacs, written almost entirely in Multics Lisp.

James Gosling created Gosling Emacs in 1981, the first Emacs-like editor for Unix systems. It used C and a language called Mocklisp. Richard Stallman started GNU Emacs in 1984 to offer a free alternative. GNU Emacs introduced many new features and became widely used. Other versions like XEmacs and Aquamacs were also developed, each bringing unique improvements and adaptations.

Features

Emacs is mainly a text editor designed for working with text. It can also format and print documents like a word processor when it works with programs such as LaTeX, Ghostscript, or a web browser. Emacs helps you work with small parts of text, like words, sentences, paragraphs, and source code.

GNU Emacs shows what you type as you type it, which was new when Emacs was created. Older editors needed you to ask to see the text after changing it.

Almost everything in Emacs is made using functions written in the Lisp programming language. This makes Emacs very flexible. You can change how Emacs works without restarting it.

Emacs keeps text in areas called buffers. Each buffer has important details like where you are typing (the point), selections, and what kind of file it is.

Emacs can remember sequences of actions as macros to repeat tasks. At start-up, Emacs reads special files to let you set up how it works, like changing colors or adding new features.

Emacs comes with help for learning how to use it, including a built-in tutorial.

Culture

Main article: Editor war

The Church of Emacs is a playful idea made for people who enjoy using Emacs, a special type of text editor. It was created by Richard Stallman as a fun way to celebrate Emacs users. In this playful idea, Emacs is treated like a special and free tool, while another editor called vi is seen as less open. The Church even has its own online group where people share their ideas.

There is also a joke about a problem some Emacs users face, called Emacs pinky. This happens when a person's little finger gets tired from pressing certain keys a lot. People have found many ways to help with this, like using special keyboard layouts or different settings in Emacs. Some also use special keyboards designed to make typing easier.