From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Bill White Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How old are Emacs users? Date: 28 Apr 2007 16:22:22 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1177802542.833069.30440@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1177803268 29678 80.91.229.12 (28 Apr 2007 23:34:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:34:28 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Apr 29 01:34:26 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HhwQr-0001ET-9K for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:34:25 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HhwWr-0004oE-Je for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:40:37 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!198.186.194.247.MISMATCH!news-out.readnews.com!news-xxxfer.readnews.com!postnews.google.com!q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 42 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.207.176.111 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1177802543 24642 127.0.0.1 (28 Apr 2007 23:22:23 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 23:22:23 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com; posting-host=12.207.176.111; posting-account=MMAhiA0AAADb8Co-wu3wmXNO65HXDwIz Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:147731 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:43334 Archived-At: On Apr 24, 12:07 am, 30ish emacs user wrote: > I'm wondering which age group most Emacs users fall into? How old are > you? I'm 32. I'm 40. > I suppose most of the youngest generation were exposed to some kind of > graphical editor like Visual Studio or Eclipse and they find Emacs > alien (those who don't understand...) after using the former. > > The older generations were more probable to be exposed to vim or emacs > first and they "stuck" with it (know the advantages), not migrating to > graphical editor land. I started on Macintoshes in a typesetting company in 1991 at age 25. The first decent text editor I used on the Mac was Qued/M on the recommendation of TeX guru Art Ogawa, who spent a few weeks at our company gettting us set up with TeX; I later moved on to Pete Keleher's TCL-based Alpha. Meanwhile I had fallen in love with emacs thanks to Ed Reingold's calendar package, but the only version I had access to was Marc Parmet's old Mac port of 18.59, which (IIRC) didn't have a lisp interpreter. Or I didn't have a chance to get into lisp. It's hard to remember. When I started working at my present job in 1996 (age 30) I was on an old NeXT slab that had emacs - which I had long loved with an unrequited love - and I decided to learn by total immersion: I would do *everything* in emacs! The manual became my bathroom and mealtime companion, and now 11 years later I still do most everything in or through emacs (except this dang gmail stuff). Hmm... this is more of a conversion story - it might be more appropriate in alt.religion.emacs :-) Looking back on all this, it's good to note how the names have stayed with me - I feel a deep gratitude to Art, Pete, Ed and Marc for writing their software and answering questions. bw -- Bill White . minutiae@gmail.com . http://minutiae.stblogs.org