What does Emacs mean?
Definitions for Emacs
emacs
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Emacs.
Did you actually mean eames or emcee?
Wiktionary
Emacsnoun
A particular visual or WYSIWYG text editor (first written by Richard Stallman in 1975 but since reimplemented by others in several distinct versions), distinguished by its use of control characters as editing commands, by its lack of distinct "insert" and "edit" modes, and by its featurefulness and extensibility.
emacsnoun
Any implementation or reimplementation of Emacs.
Etymology: editor macros
Wikipedia
Emacs
Emacs , originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor MACroS"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor". Development of the first Emacs began in the mid-1970s, and work on its direct descendant, GNU Emacs, continues actively; the latest version is 28.2, released in September 2022. Emacs has over 10,000 built-in commands and its user interface allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work. Implementations of Emacs typically feature a dialect of the Lisp programming language, allowing users and developers to write new commands and applications for the editor. Extensions have been written to, among other things, manage files, remote access, e-mail, outlines, multimedia, git integration, and RSS feeds, as well as implementations of ELIZA, Pong, Conway's Life, Snake, Dunnet, and Tetris.The original EMACS was written in 1976 by David A. Moon and Guy L. Steele Jr. as a set of Editor MACroS for the TECO editor. It was inspired by the ideas of the TECO-macro editors TECMAC and TMACS.The most popular, and most ported, version of Emacs is GNU Emacs, which was created by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project. XEmacs is a variant that branched from GNU Emacs in 1991. GNU Emacs and XEmacs use similar Lisp dialects and are, for the most part, compatible with each other. XEmacs development is inactive. Emacs is, along with vi, one of the two main contenders in the traditional editor wars of Unix culture. Emacs is among the oldest free and open source projects still under development.
Wikidata
Emacs
Emacs and its derivatives are a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for one variant describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor." Development began in the mid-1970s and continues actively as of 2013. Emacs has over 2,000 built-in commands and allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work. The use of Emacs Lisp, a variant of the Lisp programming language, provides a deep extension capability. The original EMACS was written in 1976 by Richard Stallman and Guy L. Steele, Jr. as a set of Editor MACroS for the TECO editor. It was inspired by the ideas of the TECO-macro editors TECMAC and TMACS. Emacs became, along with vi, one of the two main contenders in the traditional editor wars of Unix culture. The word "emacs" is often pluralized as emacsen by analogy with boxen and VAXen. The most popular, and most ported, version of Emacs is GNU Emacs, which was created by Stallman for the GNU Project. XEmacs is a common variant that branched from GNU Emacs in 1991. Both of the variants use Emacs Lisp and are for the most part compatible with each other.
The New Hacker's Dictionary
EMACS
[from Editing MACroS] The ne plus ultra of hacker editors, a programmable text editor with an entire LISP system inside it. It was originally written by Richard Stallman in TECO under ITS at the MIT AI lab; AI Memo 554 described it as “an advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible real-time display editor”. It has since been reimplemented any number of times, by various hackers, and versions exist that run under most major operating systems. Perhaps the most widely used version, also written by Stallman and now called “GNU EMACS” or GNUMACS, runs principally under Unix. (Its close relative XEmacs is the second most popular version.) It includes facilities to run compilation subprocesses and send and receive mail or news; many hackers spend up to 80% of their tube time inside it. Other variants include GOSMACS, CCA EMACS, UniPress EMACS, Montgomery EMACS, jove, epsilon, and MicroEMACS. (Though we use the original all-caps spelling here, it is nowadays very commonly ‘Emacs’.) Some EMACS versions running under window managers iconify as an overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one feature the editor does not (yet) include. Indeed, some hackers find EMACS too heavyweight and baroque for their taste, and expand the name as ‘Escape Meta Alt Control Shift’ to spoof its heavy reliance on keystrokes decorated with bucky bits. Other spoof expansions include ‘Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping’ (from when that was a lot of core), ‘Eventually malloc()s All Computer Storage’, and ‘EMACS Makes A Computer Slow’ (see recursive acronym). See also vi.
Anagrams for Emacs »
acmes
maces
SECAM
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of Emacs in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of Emacs in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translation
Find a translation for the Emacs definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Emacs." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Emacs>.
Discuss these Emacs definitions with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In