Writing an Emacs implementation in C (Gosling Emacs) | James Gosling and Lex Fridman

TL;DR

Richard Stallman explains the origins of Emacs, starting with its roots in the Tico text editor, and how it evolved into a visually-oriented editor written in C.

Transcript

to to return to uh the world of lisp for a brief moment you uh at cmu you've you uh wrote a version of emacs that that i think was very impactful on the history of emacs what was your motivation for for doing so at that time so that was in like 85 or 86. um i had been using unix for a few years and um most of the editing was this this tool called e... Read More

Key Insights

• 🫥 The Tico text editor was a precursor to vi and Emacs, optimized for touch typing and tailored to teletypes.
• 🧘 Emacs brought visual editing capabilities to Tico, transforming the user experience by providing a more intuitive representation of the document being edited.
• 👨‍💻 The original Emacs implementation started as macros for Tico but evolved into its own distinct editor with a different coding style and philosophy.
• 🖐️ Lisp was not initially involved in Emacs, but it played a role in later implementations of Emacs for different platforms.
• ♻️ Richard Stallman's implementation of Emacs in C made it suitable for the Unix environment and contributed to its widespread adoption.
• 🥺 Emacs gained popularity in the research community due to Unix's dominance and became one of the leading editors available.
• 🙃 During the early days, Stallman had login IDs on all non-military hosts on the ARPANET, showcasing the extensive reach and adoption of Emacs.

Questions & Answers

Q: What was the original motivation behind creating a version of Emacs for Tico?

The Tico text editor was commonly used at the time, but its macro language was obscure. Stallman aimed to bring visual editing capabilities to Tico and improve its usability.

Q: How did Emacs differ from Tico in terms of command sets?

While Tico relied on one-character commands optimized for touch typing, Emacs expanded the command set to include new functionalities and made it more user-friendly.

Q: Why was the original Emacs implementation written as macros for Tico?

Emacs initially started as a collection of macros for Tico as Tico already had a macro language. This allowed them to leverage Tico's existing capabilities while adding new features.

Q: How did Lisp fit into the picture of Emacs?

Lisp did not have a direct role in the original implementations of Emacs. However, later implementations of Emacs, such as the one for the Lisp machine, were written in Lisp.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Richard Stallman initially used the Tico text editor, a predecessor to vi, which was suitable for use with teletypes.

• The first Emacs implementation started as a set of macros for Tico but eventually developed into its own philosophy and coding style.

• Emacs introduced visual editing capabilities to Tico and enhanced the command set, making it more user-friendly.