How Emacs changed my life

How Emacs changed my Life Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto @yukihiro_matz Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

　 1980 1/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 BASIC 4/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

　 400 steps 5/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

　 1988 6/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

　 on Sun-3 8/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 shared by 200undergraduates 9/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 but I neverused 11/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 It consumed toomuch precious memory 13/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 We are freeto download free software 14/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 We are freeto read the source code 15/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Emacs was myﬁrst Lisp interpreter 18/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 I learned alot about language implementation from Emacs 19/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Mark and sweepgarbage collection 21/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Then I gota Sparc Station 26/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 I started touse Emacs 27/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 If I didn'tlike anything in Emacs, I could change it 29/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Emacs made me realize anything can be changed by a programmer 31/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 It is totalfreedom 32/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 I could editwithout thinking key binding 33/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 I didn't wantto write anything without Emacs 34/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 so I wrotemy own mail client 36/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 It was myﬁrst non-trivial (Emacs) Lisp program 39/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 I used iteveryday 40/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 1993 41/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 It uses simplemark and sweep garbage collector 45/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 It uses similarobject model to Lisp 46/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Then I putSmalltalk-like OO system on top 47/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 For syntax, Iwanted Algol/Ada/ Eiﬀel like one 48/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Butas an Emacs addict, I needed a language mode 49/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Back in 1993,there was no auto-indenting language mode for a language with such syntax 51/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 So I triedto write experimental ruby-mode.el 52/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 ﬁghting with emacslisp and regular expression, 53/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Isomehow succeeded to implement auto-indentation 55/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 for a languagewith "end" delimiters 56/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 If I couldn'tmake ruby-mode to work 57/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 the syntax ofRuby would have changed 58/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 too similar toother scripting languages 60/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 asa result, Ruby would not have gained current popularity 61/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 Summary 62/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 1. Emacs taughtme freedom for software 63/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 2. Emacs taughtme how to read code 64/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 3. Emacs taughtme power of Lisp 65/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 4. Emacs taughtme how to implement a language core 66/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 5.Emacs taught me how to implement a garbage collector 67/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 6. Emacs helpedme to code and debug 68/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 7. Emacshelped me to write and edit text/mails/documents 69/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 8. Emacs helpedme to be a eﬀective programmer 70/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 9. Emacs mademe a hacker 71/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 10. Emacs haschanged my life 72/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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　 forever 73/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2

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