What is Emacs?
GNU Emacs is difficult to explain briefly. Mostly its a text editor. However, calling it a text editor isn’t totally accurate.
Emacs was born out of John McCarthy’s Lisp programming language. As well as the progression of on screen text editing technology at MIT’s AI research laboratory. It uses its own implementation of the Lisp language Elisp. Similarly, Elisp is used to implement list based programs. The editor uses these Elisp programs to extend its functionality. Mostly text editing.
Extensible
Emacs is extensible. It has its own software ecosystem of plugins written in Elisp. Hence, it has a package manager and software repositories known as Elisp package archives. Additionally, these archives contain packages for everything; browsing the web, checking email, and even playing Chess and Tetris.
A Space Age Distribution
Emacs distributions are suites of packages with some additional configuration that make them more immediately usable. Ultimately, Spacemacs is my favorite of these distributions. Spacemacs is a robust distribution and, it uses mnemonic hotkeys which quickly become muscle memory. I find the Spacemacs hotkeys much easier to remember and execute than the default hotkeys and keychords. However, there are other similar distributions. For instance, the Centaur and Doom distributions are great examples.
Evil
There is an Elisp package called evil. Evil adds compatibility for the Vim keybindings. Vim is a modal text editor with an easy to understand logic behind its keybinings. Many Emacs users perfer to use the Vim keys for ergonomics and efficency. Evil combines the power of elisp with the prescision of Vim.
Daemonized
Emacs is meant to be run as a daemon with clients connecting to it. The daemon makes the experience responsive and convenient as it’s already persisting in the background.
Organized
Emacs has its own markup language and organizer called Org. The Org package is a great way to use the computer deliberately. It has nested lists, task scheduling, and literate programming features.
The Good Ship Emacs
To conclude, Emacs is a hacker bazaar. Moreover, it’s a digital metropolis with deep historic significance, and its an exemplar of how free software can sprawl out, evolve and stand the test of time. All in all it’s a great productivity tool … and text editor.