Robert J. Chassell wrote:
> It is simpler and shorter to say that Emacs is an integrating
> environment, like a command line interface or a graphic user
> interface. Emacs is a virtual lisp machine.
Emacs can be an integrating environment, and it does have both graphical
and command line interfaces. But it is definitely a text editor.
The Emacs manual has the correct definition, which the dictionary should
paraphrase:
GNU Emacs [is] the GNU incarnation of the advanced,
self-documenting, customizable, extensible real-time display
editor.
(Shouldn't "incarnation" be "implementation"?)
And the manual explains each of those terms (see esp. "advanced" and
"extensible"):
Emacs is a "display" editor because normally the text being
edited is visible on the screen and is updated automatically as
you type your commands.
It [is] a "real-time" editor because the display is updated very
frequently, usually after each character or pair of characters
you type.
Emacs [is] advanced because it provides facilities that go
beyond simple insertion and deletion: controlling subprocesses;
automatic indentation of programs; viewing two or more files at
once; editing formatted text; and dealing in terms of
characters, words, lines, sentences, paragraphs, and pages, as
well as expressions and comments in several different
programming languages.
"Self-documenting" means that at any time you can type a special
character, `Control-h', to find out what your options are.
"Customizable" means that you can change the definitions of
Emacs commands in little ways.
"Extensible" means that you can go beyond simple customization
and write entirely new commands, programs in the Lisp language
to be run by Emacs's own Lisp interpreter.
--
Kevin Rodgers
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