GNU Emacs release dates

GNU Emacs release dates

[Ben Wing]

Here is what I've written in the XEmacs Internals manual concerning GNU
Emacs:

Can anyone add to this?


@node Through Version 18, Epoch, A History of Emacs, A History of Emacs
@section Through Version 18
@cindex version 18, through
@cindex Gosling, James
@cindex Great Usenet Renaming

As described above, Emacs began life in the mid-1970's as a series of
editor macros for TECO, an early editor on the PDP-10.  In the early
1980's it was rewritten in C as a collaboration between Richard
M. Stallman (RMS) and James Gosling (the creator of Java); its extension
language was known as @dfn{Mocklisp}.  This version of Emacs-in-C formed
the basis for the early versions of GNU Emacs and also for Gosling's
Unipress Emacs, a commercial product.  Because of bad blood between the
two over the issue of commercialism, RMS pretty much disowned this
collaboration, referring to it as "Gosling Emacs".

At this point we pick up with a time line of events. (A broader timeline
is available at @uref{http://http://www.jwz.org/doc/emacs-timeline.html,
``Emacs Timeline''}.)

@strong{NOTE}: Sometimes there are two release dates listed below.  In
this case, the first one is the date listed in the source code, and
the second one is when the official announcement was made on
Usenet. (Sometimes, one or the other of the dates is missing, and then
the date below reflects the only existing one.)

@itemize @bullet
@item
Unipress Emacs, a $395 commercial product, was released on May 6, 1983.
This was an outgrowth of the Emacs-in-C collaboration written by Gosling
and RMS.

@item
GNU Emacs version 13.0? was released on March 20, 1985.  This may have
been the initial public release.  This was also based on this same
Emacs-in-C collaboration.

@item
GNU Emacs version 15.10 was released on April 11, 1985.

@item
GNU Emacs version 15.34 was released on May 7, 1985.  This appears
to be the last release of version 15.

@item
GNU Emacs version 16 (first released version was 16.56) was released on
July 15, 1985.  All Gosling code was removed due to potential copyright
problems with the code.
@item
Version 16.57: released on September 16, 1985.
@item
Versions 16.58, 16.59: released on September 17, 1985.
@item
Version 16.60: released on September 19, 1985.  These later version 16's
incorporated patches from the net, esp. for getting Emacs to work under
System V.
@item
Version 17.36 (first official v17 release) released on December 20,
1985.  Included a TeX-able user manual.  First official unpatched
version that worked on vanilla System V machines.
@item
Version 17.43 (second official v17 release) released on January 25,
1986.
@item
Version 17.45 released on January 30, 1986.
@item
Version 17.46 released on February 4, 1986.
@item
Version 17.48 released on February 10, 1986.
@item
Version 17.49 released on February 12, 1986.
@item
Version 17.55 released on March 18, 1986.
@item
Version 17.57 released on March 27, 1986.
@item
Version 17.58 released on April 4, 1986.
@item
Version 17.61 released on April 12, 1986.
@item
Version 17.63 released on May 7, 1986.
@item
Version 17.64 released on May 12, 1986.
@item
Version 18.24 (a beta version) released on October 2, 1986.
@item
Version 18.30 (a beta version) released on November 15, 1986.
@item
Version 18.31 (a beta version) released on November 23, 1986.
@item
Version 18.32 (a beta version) released on December 6 or 7, 1986.
@item
Version 18.33 (a beta version) released on December 12, 1986.
@item
Version 18.35 (a beta version) released on January 5, 1987.
@item
Version 18.36 (a beta version) released on January 21, 1987.
@item
January 27, 1987: The Great Usenet Renaming.  net.emacs is now
comp.emacs.
@item
Version 18.37 (a beta version) released on February 9 or 12, 1987.
@item
Version 18.38 (a beta version) released on March 2 or 3, 1987.
@item
Version 18.39 (a beta version) released on March 14, 1987.
@item
Version 18.40 (a beta version) released on March 18, 1987.
@item
Version 18.41 (the first ``official'' release) released on March 22,
1987.
@item
Version 18.45 released on June 2, 1987.
@item
Version 18.46 released on June 8 or 9, 1987.
@item
Version 18.47 released on June 10 or 18, 1987.
@item
Version 18.48 released on August 30 or September 3, 1987.
@item
Version 18.49 released on September 16 or 18, 1987.
@item
Version 18.50 released on February 11 or 13, 1988.
@item
Version 18.51 released on May 6 or 7, 1988.
@item
Version 18.52 released on September 1, 1988.
@item
Version 18.53 released on February 23 or 24, 1989.
@item
Version 18.54 released on April 26, 1989.
@item
Version 18.55 released on August 18 or 23, 1989.  This is the earliest
version
that is still available by FTP. (Verified in November 2004.)
@item
Version 18.56 released on January 16 or 17, 1991.
@item
Version 18.57 released on January 25, 1991.
@item
Version 18.58 released on February 18, 1991.
@item
Version 18.59 released on October 30 or 31, 1992.
@end itemize

@node GNU Emacs 19, GNU Emacs 20, Lucid Emacs, A History of Emacs
@section GNU Emacs 19
@cindex GNU Emacs 19
@cindex Emacs 19, GNU
@cindex version 19, GNU Emacs
@cindex FSF Emacs

  About a year after the initial release of Lucid Emacs, the FSF
released a beta of their version of Emacs 19 (referred to here as ``GNU
Emacs'').  By this time, the current version of Lucid Emacs was
19.6. (Strangely, the first released beta from the FSF was GNU Emacs
19.7.) A time line for GNU Emacs version 19 is

@itemize @bullet
@item
Version 19.7 beta released May 22, 1993.  First public beta v19 release.
@item
Version 19.8 beta released May 25 or 27, 1993.
@item
Version 19.9 beta released May 27, 1993.
@item
Version 19.10 beta released May 30, 1993.
@item
Version 19.11 beta released June 1, 1993.
@item
Version 19.12 beta released June 1 or 2, 1993.
@item
Version 19.13 beta released June 8, 1993.
@item
Version 19.14 beta released June 17, 1993.
@item
Version 19.15 beta released June 19, 1993.
@item
Version 19.16 beta released July 6, 1993.
@item
Version 19.17 beta released July 17, 1993.
@item
Version 19.18 beta released August 8 or 9, 1993.
@item
Version 19.19 beta released August 14 or 15, 1993.
@item
Version 19.20 beta released November 11 or 17, 1993.
@item
Version 19.21 beta released November 16 or 17, 1993.
@item
Version 19.22 beta released November 27 or 28, 1993.
@item
Version 19.23 beta released May 17, 1994.
@item
Version 19.24 beta released May 23 or 16 (?), 1994.
@item
Version 19.25 beta released May 30 or June 3, 1994.
@item
Version 19.26 beta released September 7 or 11, 1994.
@item
Version 19.27 beta released September 11 or 14, 1994.
@item
Version 19.28 (first ``official'' release) released November 1, 1994.
@item
Version 19.29 released June 19 or 21, 1995.
@item
Version 19.30 released November 24, 1995.
@item
Version 19.31 released May 25, 1996.
@item
Version 19.32 released July 31, 1996.
@item
Version 19.33 released August 11, 1996.
@item
Version 19.34 released August 21, 1996.
@item
Version 19.34b released September 6, 1996.
@end itemize

@node GNU Emacs 20, XEmacs, GNU Emacs 19, A History of Emacs
@section GNU Emacs 20
@cindex GNU Emacs 20
@cindex Emacs 20, GNU
@cindex version 20, GNU Emacs
@cindex FSF Emacs

On February 2, 1997 work began on GNU Emacs to integrate Mule.  The first
release was made in September of that year.

A timeline for GNU Emacs 20 is

@itemize @bullet
@item
Version 20.1 released September 15 or 17, 1997.
@item
Version 20.2 released September 19 or 20, 1997.
@item
Version 20.3 released August 19, 1998.
@item
version 20.4 released July 12, 1999; on comp.emacs, July 27.
@item
version 20.5 released December 4, 1999.
@item
version 20.6 released February 26, 2000.
@item
version 20.7 released June 13, 2000.
@end itemize

A timeline for GNU Emacs 21 is

@itemize @bullet
@item
version 21.1 released October 20, 2001.
@item
Version 21.2 released March 16, 2002.
@item
Version 21.3 released March 19, 2003.
@end itemize

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[Miles Bader]

On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 02:56:01AM -0600, Ben Wing wrote:
> In the early
> 1980's it was rewritten in C as a collaboration between Richard
> M. Stallman (RMS) and James Gosling (the creator of Java); its extension
> language was known as @dfn{Mocklisp}.  This version of Emacs-in-C formed
> the basis for the early versions of GNU Emacs and also for Gosling's
> Unipress Emacs, a commercial product.  Because of bad blood between the
> two over the issue of commercialism, RMS pretty much disowned this
> collaboration, referring to it as "Gosling Emacs".

AFAIK, Gosmacs was solely due to James Gosling (though of course its UI was
modelled on the original Emacs), and only later did RMS adapt some of its
redisplay and buffer-handling code for use in early verions of GNU Emacs.

-Miles
-- 
We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
-Oscar Wilde

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[Richard Stallman]

I had nothing to do with implementing Gosmacs.  It was inspired
by the original Emacs, but that's all.  I would never have agreed
to use a language like Mocklisp.

Gosling originally asked the user community to improve Gosmacs.
In an early manual, he said he hoped other people would improve
it so that it became worth of the name "Emacs".  But then he
made it proprietary.

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[David Kastrup]

"Ben Wing" <ben@666.com> writes:

> Can anyone add to this?
>
>
> @node Through Version 18, Epoch, A History of Emacs, A History of Emacs
> @section Through Version 18
> @cindex version 18, through
> @cindex Gosling, James
> @cindex Great Usenet Renaming
>
> As described above, Emacs began life in the mid-1970's as a series of
> editor macros for TECO, an early editor on the PDP-10.  In the early
> 1980's it was rewritten in C as a collaboration between Richard
> M. Stallman (RMS) and James Gosling (the creator of Java); its extension
> language was known as @dfn{Mocklisp}.  This version of Emacs-in-C formed
> the basis for the early versions of GNU Emacs and also for Gosling's
> Unipress Emacs, a commercial product.  Because of bad blood between the
> two over the issue of commercialism, RMS pretty much disowned this
> collaboration, referring to it as "Gosling Emacs".

I guess you'll find that RMS' account of that will be very much
different.  AFAIK, there was no colloboration, but rather some code
borrowing (I should think in both directions, but the sources are not
really clear about that.  It could also be that Gosling Emacs was just
inspired by the earlier existing Emacs, and not actually be using code
from it.  Somebody acquainted with the actual code or history should
probably know better than I do).

However, Gosling later pulled the permission for his code parts, and
RMS had to replace everything in GNU Emacs that had been placed in
there (by himself, drawing on Gosling's work as far as I am able to
interpret the available docs).  This was pretty seminal, I believe,
both in inspiring creation of the GPL as well as the copyright
assignment policy.

You may find RMS' account of these events more or less at
<URL:http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/stallman-kth.html>.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[Miles Bader]

Gosmacs certainly didn't borrow any code from the earlier (original)
emacs, it was an utterly and completely different beast (I spent a lot
of time perusing both gosmacs and ITS Emacs source code as an
undergraduate).  Even the user-interface was different in many ways --
it was mostly the general concepts and most common command bindings
that were based on ITS emacs.

The later GNU Emacs in turn borrowed[*] not just some code, but UI
concepts from gosmacs as well, e.g. the user of ordinary buffers for
displaying completion and the like instead of using "typeout" like ITS
Emacs did.

[*] I suppose it may simply be a case of both "doing the obvious thing" though.

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[David Kastrup]

Miles Bader <snogglethorpe@gmail.com> writes:

> Gosmacs certainly didn't borrow any code from the earlier (original)
> emacs, it was an utterly and completely different beast (I spent a
> lot of time perusing both gosmacs and ITS Emacs source code as an
> undergraduate).  Even the user-interface was different in many ways
> -- it was mostly the general concepts and most common command
> bindings that were based on ITS emacs.
>
> The later GNU Emacs in turn borrowed[*] not just some code, but UI
> concepts from gosmacs as well, e.g. the user of ordinary buffers for
> displaying completion and the like instead of using "typeout" like
> ITS Emacs did.
>
> [*] I suppose it may simply be a case of both "doing the obvious
> thing" though.

Thanks for countering my speculations (which thus have served their
purpose) with some solid facts.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[Robert J. Chassell]

My memory is that DEC pursued the legal cases that Gosling (or the
company he was with) was bringing against companies that used GNU
Emacs.  DEC won.  The GNU Emacs code was OK.

>From the point of view of an outsider, it looked that Gosling was
bringing a case which most companies would not fight in court.  The
anti-GNU Emacs case was that any MBA would see that the payment sought
by Gosling would cost less than a legal case, even if the legal case
was won.  Moreover, no MBA would figure a ban on GNU Emacs would be
worth anything since it involved free markets and software freedom,
not monopoly or other restriction.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    bob@rattlesnake.com                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc

Re: GNU Emacs release dates

[Kevin Rodgers]

Ben Wing wrote:
 > Here is what I've written in the XEmacs Internals manual concerning GNU
 > Emacs:
 >
 > Can anyone add to this?
...

 > @item
 > Version 18.41 (the first ``official'' release) released on March 22,
 > 1987.

In my Emacs.diary file, I also have:

&Apr 15	GNU Emacs version 18.44 released on this day in 1987.

 > @item
 > Version 18.45 released on June 2, 1987.

...

 > @item
 > version 20.7 released June 13, 2000.

My Emacs.diary file lists version 20.7 as having been released on
June 6, 2000.

Thanks!
-- 
Kevin Rodgers