In this live stream, I look at the source code for the popular text editor Emacs.
Emacs development dates back to the 1970s and the MIT AI lab's attempt to create a hardware Lisp machine -- that is, a machine modeled more or less on the Lambda calculus. In the video, I unintentionally stumble upon a priority dispute over who actually wrote and designed the original Emacs, and I ask ChatGPT to render its judgment.
Then, about 23 minutes in, I start digging into the code for GNU Emacs. Gnu Emacs dates back to the mid 1980s and is easily the most popular surviving Emacs implementation.
Correction: I said I thought Steele was one of the authors of the "famous Lisp book," but that's incorrect. I was thinking of the book "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs," often called SICP. Steele's frequent coauthor Gerald Sussman is indeed an author of SICP, but Steele didn't work on that book. The other co-authors of SICP are Harold Abelson and Julie Sussman.
Useful links:
- Site: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- Code (official): https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
- Code (GitHub mirror): https://github.com/emacs-mirror/emacs
- SICP MIT course from 1986: • MIT 6.001 Structure and Interpretatio...
Code reading starts at 22:55 after some diving into the history of Emacs.
Thanks for watching :)
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