Emacs (pronounced ee-max) started off in 1976 as a series of editor macros (hence its name) written by Richard Matthew Stallman for the TECO text editor on the DEC PDP-10 minicomputer. Since becoming its own program separate from TECO, it has become extremely popular and widely used for two main reasons: first, free versions of Emacs are available for nearly every computer in existence; second, it’s completely customizable. Many text editors and word processors claim to be completely customizable. Some let you reassign each key’s purpose, and they let you assign a series of operations to be performed by one or two keystrokes or menu choices.
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