[emacs-humanities] Emacs as a Unix citizen

[Oliver Taylor]

I thought Prot's comments on how Emacs fits in to a Unix-centric
workflow[1] were interesting, and I thought I'd share my take on it.

1: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-12-28-comment-unix-vs-emacs/

Different computing environments have different interaction methods. The iPad
is one, the GUI (mouse and keyboard) is another, UNIX yet another---Firefox
works the same way everything else in the GUI works, sed works the same way
everything in UNIX works. It is tempting to think that software that is a
'good citizen' of its environment should follow the conventions of that
environment, and for the most part I enthusiastically agree. Under that line
of thinking Emacs seems strange indeed, it does not follow the strict
conventions of a GUI, nor of UNIX. But Emacs is, in fact, less a citizen of
those environments and more an environment unto itself. In my view this is the
source of the confusion: to use Emacs is to (in effect) embed one computing
environment within another (somewhat like VNC-ing into a Windows machine from
an iPad). Switching between Firefox, Terminal, and Emacs requires three
completely different interaction methods, unique to each program. I can
certainly understand why one would not want to do this but it does not bother
me, and allows me to use the best tool for the job at hand (which reminds me
somewhat of the vim koan of Master Wq and the Windows developer[2]).

2: https://sanctum.geek.nz/arabesque/vim-koans/

Personally, my answer to the question 'Why use Emacs?' is:

* Ease, and completeness, of customization and extension.

I imagine Emacs users nodding in agreement with this statement and non-Emacs
users scratching their heads in confusion. Emacs can seem complex, but once
you learn how to customize and extend it an enormous (and highly accessible)
landscape opens up. The sheer breadth and depth of the possibilities to
customize and extend are what makes Emacs unique, and allows Emacs to
transcend being 'just' a text editor.