Emacs has a very long history of being one of the most full-featured text editors around. Not only that, but it has a whole galaxy of other features: everything from a Tetris clone to a Usenet news reader. It also goes hand-in-hand with Unix’s tradition of supporting the programming process.

This introductory talk assumes no prior Emacs experience.

It will cover the following areas:-

  • helpful mindsets for using Emacs
  • highly-efficient text editing in Emacs
  • The use of Emacs as an IDE
  • the philosophy behind Emacs’ construction

Traditionally Emacs was terminal-based, but now there are two main “competing” branches from the original code, each offering different GUIs: GNU Emacs and XEmacs. They have other differences too, including architectural and API aspects.

That’s right – the plot thickens – Emacs has an API. The majority of Emacs is actually written in LISP. This allows bits of Emacs to be easily overridden or extended. It also makes it relatively easy to add completely new features and editing modes.

From a non-programmer’s perspective, Emacs is also highly customisable, offering a very powerful menu-driven configuration interface. It really is the ultimate kitchen sink editor.

Alastair Irvine has worked as both a Software Engineer and a system administrator. His professional experience lies in the fields of Linux and Unix system administration, network and Internet domain management and operating system maintenance. Alastair is passionate about a wide variety of technologies including Python, Debian GNU/Linux, C++ and XML. He currently works with Warpspace IT, an IT consultancy firm, providing IT solutions based on open systems.