How Emacs changed my life

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Published on Mar 26, 2012

How Emacs changed my life

1. 1. How Emacs changed my Life Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto @yukihiro_matz Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
2. 2. 　1980 1/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
3. 3. 　I started programming 2/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
4. 4. 　 3/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
5. 5. 　BASIC 4/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
6. 6. 　400 steps 5/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
7. 7. 　1988 6/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
8. 8. 　I met Emacs 7/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
9. 9. 　on Sun-3 8/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
10. 10. 　shared by 200 undergraduates 9/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
11. 11. 　I tried Emacs 10/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
12. 12. 　but I never used 11/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
13. 13. 　Emacs was prohibited 12/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
14. 14. 　It consumed too much precious memory 13/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
15. 15. 　We are free to download free software 14/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
16. 16. 　We are free to read the source code 15/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
17. 17. 　I downloaded Emacs source code 16/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
18. 18. 　and investigated 17/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
19. 19. 　Emacs was my first Lisp interpreter 18/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
20. 20. 　I learned a lot about language implementation from Emacs 19/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
21. 21. 　Embedding integers in pointers 20/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
22. 22. 　Mark and sweep garbage collection 21/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
23. 23. 　Calling convention between Lisp and C 22/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
24. 24. 　I really understood how Lisp work 23/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
25. 25. 　I was fascinated by Lisp objects 24/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
26. 26. 　Lisp objects implemented by C 25/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
27. 27. 　Then I got a Sparc Station 26/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
28. 28. 　I started to use Emacs 27/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
29. 29. 　Emacs become part of me 28/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
30. 30. 　If I didnt like anything inEmacs, I could change it 29/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
31. 31. 　Emacs is totally configurable 30/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
32. 32. 　 Emacs made me realizeanything can be changed by a programmer 31/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
33. 33. 　It is total freedom 32/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
34. 34. 　I could edit without thinking key binding 33/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
35. 35. 　I didnt want to write anything without Emacs 34/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
36. 36. 　Programs, Documents and Mails 35/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
37. 37. 　so I wrote my own mail client 36/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
38. 38. 　named "cmail" 37/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
39. 39. 　in Emacs lisp 38/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
40. 40. 　It was my first non-trivial (Emacs) Lisp program 39/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
41. 41. 　I used it everyday 40/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
42. 42. 　1993 41/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
43. 43. 　I started Ruby development 42/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
44. 44. 　with influence from Emacs implementation 43/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
45. 45. 　Integers are coded in tagged pointers 44/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
46. 46. 　It uses simple mark andsweep garbage collector 45/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
47. 47. 　It uses similar object model to Lisp 46/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
48. 48. 　Then I put Smalltalk-like OO system on top 47/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
49. 49. 　For syntax, I wanted Algol/Ada/ Eiffel like one 48/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
50. 50. 　 But as an Emacs addict,I needed a language mode 49/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
51. 51. 　auto-indent was a must 50/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
52. 52. 　Back in 1993, there was no auto-indenting language mode for a language with such syntax 51/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
53. 53. 　So I tried to write experimental ruby-mode.el 52/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
54. 54. 　fighting with emacs lisp and regular expression, 53/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
55. 55. 　for almost whole week 54/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
56. 56. 　 I somehow succeeded toimplement auto-indentation 55/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
57. 57. 　for a language with "end" delimiters 56/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
58. 58. 　If I couldnt make ruby-mode to work 57/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
59. 59. 　the syntax of Ruby would have changed 58/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
60. 60. 　to more C-like one 59/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
61. 61. 　too similar to other scripting languages 60/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
62. 62. 　 as a result, Ruby would nothave gained current popularity 61/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
63. 63. 　Summary 62/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
64. 64. 　1. Emacs taught me freedom for software 63/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
65. 65. 　2. Emacs taught me how to read code 64/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
66. 66. 　3. Emacs taught me power of Lisp 65/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
67. 67. 　4. Emacs taught me how toimplement a language core 66/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
68. 68. 　 5. Emacs taught me how toimplement a garbage collector 67/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
69. 69. 　6. Emacs helped me to code and debug 68/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
70. 70. 　 7. Emacs helped me to writeand edit text/mails/documents 69/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
71. 71. 　8. Emacs helped me to be a effective programmer 70/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
72. 72. 　9. Emacs made me a hacker 71/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
73. 73. 　10. Emacs has changed my life 72/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
74. 74. 　forever 73/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2
75. 75. 　Thank you 74/74 Powered by Rabbit 0.9.2