Re: [comp.emacs] "Emacs" defined in Collins English Dictionary

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

    Emacs is an editor ...

At some point, an `editor' ceases to be a program that encompasses all
the ways that people can twiddle bits and becomes something else.

People like RMS do not see any difference between changing a file name
and changing a word within that file, but others do.  When you speak
the word `editor' and wish to communicate, you must either tell your
listener that you are using an uncommon definition, or use a different
term.  I am not saying that RMS is incorrect in this thought, but that
when using the word `editor', he and others fail to communicate
successfully unless they explain what they mean.

The definition I saw did _not_ say "using an uncommon definition of
the word, one that to most people means `integrated user environment',
Emacs is an editor."

As written, the definition misleads people into thinking that Emacs
falls into the same category as VI or Notepad.

    Integrated envirnonment usually lack the elegance and simple
    extensibility of Emacs ...

Yes, indeed.  That does not means that Emacs is not an integrated
envirnonment; it means that others are not as elegant and simple.  On
this, we agree.

Fewer words are needed to define Emacs as an integrated user
environment with editing capabilities than to explain that the word
`editor' is not as defined elsewhere in the dictionary, but is a
special usage for the entry.

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