Re: Where is Emacs Lisp taught ?

[Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com>]

Alan E. Davis wrote:

> First, I am not a programmer. I have
> a different perspective. I see Elisp as an
> integral component of Emacs---the Extensible
> Self Documenting Editor. That is the very
> core of it. This is sets itself apart from
> any other editor. I will never be an expert
> at lisp, but I can extend Emacs while
> refering to documentation of the editor and
> Elisp, all at my fingertips. It is a stroke
> of brilliance, just one of the reasons I am
> grateful for the work of Richard Stallman.
>
> Emacs fell into my hands unexpectedly, just
> when I seriously needed a tool for my project
> developing a lexicon of animal names in
> a Pacific language complex. I was looking for
> an editor that I could make a simple macro to
> type letters with diacritical marks.
> Multi-Edit seems to me to work just fine.
> It was all I had, provided to me by
> a lingust. The trial version was "free", in
> dollars and cents terms; yet it was a form of
> cripple ware: to get the full use of it would
> require a manual, which would cost 350.00, an
> impossible sum for me. Emacs came with an
> amazing manual.
>
> I had seen the very name of the Free Software
> Foundation, and, not knowing anything about
> it's purpose or cause, I wrote to request
> some free software. I lived on an isolated
> island, so it took some time before
> I received a package with 13 3-1/2" disks,
> with a port of Emacs to Windows 3, called
> Demacs, and a suite of unix utilities ported
> to Windows 3 by Cygnus, if I recall
> correctly. This was in about 1992. Unix tools
> were perfect for my intended project of
> "digitizing" a growing body or data on animal
> names. Sort and string manipulation utilities
> were most welcome.
>
> So I had a toolkit of unimaginable utility,
> perfectly suited to my need. Elisp was part
> and parcel of it all. I had some limited
> familiarity with computers, so I was able to
> work my way though the documentation---all of
> it included as part of Emacs, and available
> just when one needed it. This is another part
> of the brilliant scheme that is Emacs: the
> TexInfo documentation could not be easier
> to use.
>
> I haven't told this story often enough, but
> it is beside the point. The point is the
> Elisp is integrated with the editor, making
> it quite unique in my experience. It can be
> learned independently, absent any course,
> though I admit I have struggled to learn the
> little that I have, and to do complicated
> things I needed help. I would think that
> a course in Elsip would be extremely
> interesting. First, one needs to find a young
> person whose interests align well with
> the tool.

Thanks for sharing this story. I enjoyed
reading it.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573