GNU Emacs

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GNU Emacs
Original author(s)Richard Stallman
Developer(s)GNU Project
Initial release20 March 1985; 39 years ago (1985-03-20)
Stable release
26.3 / 28 August 2019; 4 years ago (2019-08-28)
Preview release
27.0.91 / 19 April 2020; 4 years ago (2020-04-19)
Repository
Written inEmacs Lisp, C[1]
Operating systemUnix-like (GNU, Linux, macOS, BSDs, Solaris), Windows, MS-DOS[2]
PlatformCross-platform
Available inEnglish
TypeText editor
LicenseGPLv3+
Websitewww.gnu.org/software/emacs/

GNU Emacs (short for Editing Macros) is thought to be text editor that is common on many UNIX-based operating systems, Mac and Windows Operating systems but it's actually a extendable elisp editor that can be made to be just about anything [3] [4][5][6][7]

Emacs is primarily used by just about everyone from programmers to home desktop users. This is because emacs can do just about anything you can think of. Some of the uses of Emacs include:

  • Creating PDF documents
  • Setting up agendas and to-do lists [8]
  • Reading e-mail and news [9]
  • Keeping a calendar and diary [10]
  • Chat on IRC [11]
  • It can even act as a desktop manger (Linux, BSD or other Unix like systems only at this time) [12]


Emacs is made powerful by Emacs Lisp, a built-in programming language that lets the user extend the capabilities of the editor.

A common Emacs joke is that all of the functions of the editor are crazy weird keystrokes (such as "control-meta-4 shift-left-P-semicolon-F1" to do something simple like cut and paste text). In reality, though, these keystrokes are relatively simple, though they can take some getting used to.

There is an Internet turf war between programmers that prefer Emacs and programmers that prefer Vim (or Vi),[13] another common text editor.

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ "GNU Emacs", Analysis Summary, Open Hub
  2. ↑ "Emacs machines list".
  3. ↑ "GNU Emacs - GNU Project".
  4. ↑ Cameron, D., Rosenblatt, B., Raymond, E., & Raymond, E. S. (1996). Learning GNU Emacs. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
  5. ↑ Halme, H., & Heinänen, J. (1988). GNU Emacs as a dynamically extensible programming environment. Software: Practice and Experience, 18(10), 999-1009.
  6. ↑ Cameron, D., Elliott, J., Loy, M., Raymond, E. S., & Rosenblatt, B. (2005). Learning GNU Emacs. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
  7. ↑ Schoonover, M. A., & Schoonover, S. (1991). GNU Emacs: UNIX text editing and programming. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc..
  8. ↑ "GNU Emacs - GNU Project".
  9. ↑ "Gnus manual - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)".
  10. ↑ "Gnus manual - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)".
  11. ↑ "GNU Emacs - ERC - GNU Project".
  12. ↑ "Emacs X Window Manager". GitHub. 10 July 2022.
  13. ↑ Robbins, A., Hannah, E., & Lamb, L. (2008). Learning the vi and vim editors. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
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