1. The document describes how the author's experience with Emacs as a student taught him about software freedom and how to read and modify source code. This led him to create his own Emacs-based tools and influenced the design of Ruby. 2. Emacs taught the author the power of Lisp and how to implement a programming language and garbage collection. Using Emacs to write code, documents and email made him a more effective programmer. 3. Emacs had a profound influence on the author and changed his life by helping him become a hacker and free software advocate.

1. How Emacs changed
my Life
Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto
@yukihiro_matz
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2.
1980
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3.
I started programming
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4.
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BASIC
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400 steps
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1988
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I met Emacs
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on Sun-3
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shared by 200 undergraduates
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I tried Emacs
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but I never used
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Emacs was prohibited
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14.
It consumed too much
precious memory
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15.
We are free to download free
software
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16.
We are free to read the source
code
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I downloaded Emacs source
code
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18.
and investigated
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Emacs was my first Lisp
interpreter
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I learned a lot about language
implementation from Emacs
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21.
Embedding integers in
pointers
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22.
Mark and sweep garbage
collection
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Calling convention between
Lisp and C
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24.
I really understood how Lisp
work
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I was fascinated by Lisp
objects
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Lisp objects implemented by C
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Then I got a Sparc Station
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I started to use Emacs
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Emacs become part of me
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30.
If I didn't like anything in
Emacs, I could change it
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Emacs is totally configurable
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Emacs made me realize
anything can be changed by a
programmer
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It is total freedom
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I could edit without thinking
key binding
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I didn't want to write anything
without Emacs
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Programs, Documents and
Mails
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so I wrote my own mail client
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named "cmail"
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in Emacs lisp
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It was my first non-trivial
(Emacs) Lisp program
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I used it everyday
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1993
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I started Ruby development
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with influence from Emacs
implementation
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Integers are coded in tagged
pointers
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It uses simple mark and
sweep garbage collector
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It uses similar object model to
Lisp
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Then I put Smalltalk-like OO
system on top
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For syntax, I wanted Algol/Ada/
Eiffel like one
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But as an Emacs addict,
I needed a language mode
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auto-indent was a must
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Back in 1993, there was no
auto-indenting language
mode for a language with
such syntax
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So I tried to write experimental
ruby-mode.el
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fighting with emacs lisp and
regular expression,
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for almost whole week
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I somehow succeeded to
implement auto-indentation
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for a language with "end"
delimiters
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If I couldn't make ruby-mode
to work
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the syntax of Ruby would
have changed
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to more C-like one
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too similar to other scripting
languages
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as a result, Ruby would not
have gained current popularity
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63.
Summary
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1. Emacs taught me freedom
for software
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2. Emacs taught me how to
read code
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3. Emacs taught me power of
Lisp
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4. Emacs taught me how to
implement a language core
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5. Emacs taught me how to
implement a garbage collector
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6. Emacs helped me to code
and debug
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7. Emacs helped me to write
and edit text/mails/documents
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8. Emacs helped me to be a
effective programmer
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9. Emacs made me a hacker
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10. Emacs has changed my life
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forever
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Thank you
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