Re: Is Emacs very alive, active and improving?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: "Ludwig, Mark" <ludwig.mark@siemens.com>
> Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 12:21:16 +0000
> 
> Consider that EMACS back then was a "real-time display editor" in a
> world in which the vast majority of computing was being done on
> punch cards!

Punch cards were not the issue, where "real-time display editor"
nature of Emacs was contrasted with the other editors.  The issue was
that back then (and many years after that), a garden variety text
editor required you to issue what was essentially batch-style editing
commands.  For example, to replace "FOO" with "BAR" at position 20 of
line number 10, you'd say something like L10M20D3IBAR, which means "in
line 10, move 20 places, delete 3 characters, then insert "BAR"".  And
after issuing this command, you'd typically need another command to
actually _display_ the line that was edited -- and only that line
(i.e., no full-screen display).  With such editors, you'd generally
need to hold the entire file in your head, rather than see it on the
screen.