Emacs

3 definitions found

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  EMACS
       Editing MACroS (GNU)
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:



  EMACS /ee'maks/ n. [from Editing MACroS] The ne plus ultra of hacker
     editors, a programmable text editor with an entire LISP system inside
     it. It was originally written by Richard Stallman in {TECO} under
     {{ITS}} at the MIT AI lab; AI Memo 554 described it as "an advanced,
     self-documenting, customizable, extensible real-time display editor". It
     has since been reimplemented any number of times, by various hackers,
     and versions exist that run under most major operating systems. Perhaps
     the most widely used version, also written by Stallman and now called
     "{GNU} EMACS" or {GNUMACS}, runs principally under Unix. (Its close
     relative XEmacs is the second most popular version.) It includes
     facilities to run compilation subprocesses and send and receive mail or
     news; many hackers spend up to 80% of their {tube time} inside it. Other
     variants include {GOSMACS}, CCA EMACS, UniPress EMACS, Montgomery EMACS,
     jove, epsilon, and MicroEMACS. (Though we use the original all-caps
     spelling here, it is nowadays very commonly `Emacs'.)
  
     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' (from when that was a lot of
     {core}), `Eventually `malloc()'s All Computer Storage', and `EMACS Makes
     A Computer Slow' (see {{recursive acronym}}). See also {vi}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  Emacs
       
           /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, {tool bars}, {tool tips}, toolkit scroll bars, and a
          mouse-sensitive mode line.
       
          {FTP} from your nearest {GNU archive site}.
       
          E-mail: (bug reports only) .
       
          {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)