from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Emacs
GNU Emacs
<text, tool> /ee'maks/ (Editing MACroS, or Extensible MACro
System, GNU Emacs) A popular {screen editor} for {Unix} and
most other {operating systems}.
Emacs is distributed by the {Free Software Foundation} and was
{Richard Stallman}'s first step in the {GNU} project. Emacs
is extensible - it is easy to add new functions; customisable
- you can rebind keys, and modify the behaviour of existing
functions; self-documenting - there is extensive on-line,
context-sensitive help; and has a real-time "what you see is
what you get" display. Emacs is writen in {C} and the higher
levels are programmed in {Emacs Lisp}.
Emacs has an entire {Lisp} system inside it. It was
originally written in {TECO} under {ITS} at the {MIT} {AI
lab}. AI Memo 554 described it as "an advanced,
self-documenting, customisable, extensible real-time display
editor".
It includes facilities to view directories, run compilation
subprocesses and send and receive {electronic mail} and
{Usenet} {news} ({GNUS}). {W3} is a {web browser}, the
ange-ftp package provides transparent access to files on
remote {FTP} {servers}. {Calc} is a calculator and {symbolic
mathematics} package. There are "modes" provided to assist in
editing most well-known programming languages. Most of these
extra functions are configured to load automatically on first
use, reducing start-up time and memory consumption. Many
hackers (including {Denis Howe}) spend more than 80% of their
{tube time} inside Emacs.
GNU Emacs is available for {Unix}, {VMS}, {GNU}/{Linux},
{FreeBSD}, {NetBSD}, {OpenBSD}, {MS Windows}, {MS-DOS}, and
other systems. Emacs has been re-implemented more than 30
times. Other variants include {GOSMACS}, CCA Emacs, UniPress
Emacs, Montgomery Emacs, and {XEmacs}. {Jove}, {epsilon}, and
{MicroEmacs} are limited look-alikes.
Some Emacs versions running under {window managers} iconify as
an overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one
feature the editor does not (yet) include. Indeed, some
hackers find Emacs too {heavyweight} and {baroque} for their
taste, and expand the name as "Escape Meta Alt Control Shift"
to spoof its heavy reliance on keystrokes decorated with
{bucky bits}. Other spoof expansions include "Eight Megabytes
And Constantly Swapping", "Eventually "malloc()'s All Computer
Storage", and "Emacs Makes A Computer Slow" (see {recursive
acronym}). See also {vi}.
Latest version: 20.6, as of 2000-05-11. 21.1 ({RSN}) adds a
new redisplay engine with support for {proportional text},
images, {toolbars}, {tool tips}, toolkit scroll bars, and a
mouse-sensitive mode line.
{FTP} from your nearest {GNU archive site}.
E-mail: (bug reports only) <[email protected]>.
Usenet newsgroups: news:gnu.emacs.help,
news:gnu.emacs.bug, news:alt.religion.emacs,
news:gnu.emacs.sources, news:gnu.emacs.announce.
[{Jargon File}]
(1997-02-04)