From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Where is Emacs Lisp taught ? Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2018 18:03:47 +0100 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <86d0ruovf0.fsf@zoho.com> References: <5B8BFDC9-A07B-48FE-8C97-1BB0B84E5577@gmail.com> <53705d26-8a69-4453-aed9-ab72a0cd139e@googlegroups.com> <87woq2ewza.fsf@portable.galex-713.eu> <668D7901-5829-436B-ABE5-4FEE09D73136@gmail.com> <87muqydbxj.fsf@portable.galex-713.eu> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1540746221 11299 195.159.176.226 (28 Oct 2018 17:03:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2018 17:03:41 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Oct 28 18:03:37 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1gGoTQ-0002pj-PA for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Oct 2018 18:03:36 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:40961 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gGoVX-0003YF-B7 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Oct 2018 13:05:47 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!fu-berlin.de!news.unit0.net!news.mixmin.net!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 74 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: IYul6C8CwghWjVz/CRhiVw.user.gioia.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org Mail-Copies-To: never Cancel-Lock: sha1:jpB0M3WSZsBDDCYQA9YPKqKo5xI= X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.3 Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:224340 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:118469 Archived-At: 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