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Re: Why 19.34? [Oldest running Emacs version]


From: Brian Masinick
Subject: Re: Why 19.34? [Oldest running Emacs version]
Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 20:12:41 GMT
User-agent: Gnus/5.090018 (Oort Gnus v0.18) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux)

Alan Mackenzie<none@example.invalid> writes:

> In comp.emacs Brian Masinick <masinick@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I can't remember how long ago it was, but I happened to come across a
>> GNU Emacs 18.55 or 19.57 implementation.  Though my very first
>> introduction to Emacs actually happened on a MULTICS system and the
>> version was prior to the creation of GNU Emacs, I actually started
>> using GNU Emacs regularly around the time that 18.55 came out.  I
>> probably used 18.55 for around a year, then moved to 18.57, 18.58
>> briefly, and 18.59 before starting to use the 19 releases.  I probably
>> used 19.28 and 19.34 more than any other releases in that release
>> cycle.  I think I've used all of the version 20 releases and I've
>> definitely used all of the version 21 releases.
>
> A question from a "newbie":  What was so special about GNU Emacs 19.34?
> Why did it become (and stay) so popular?  You've indicated that there
> were versions 19.xx for xx > 34.  There are Info files which refer
> specifically to 19.34 (well, at least one that does).  Books (well, at
> least one book) say "The examples in this book ... were tested in GNU
> Emacs version 19.34 ...".
>
> So, why 19.34?
>
>> Way back in version 18, there were really basic X11 capabilities that
>> were implemented through the direct use of X11 Xlib calls.  As such,
>> performance was pretty good, and overhead was modest, compared to
>> today's software, but the capabilities of the graphical interface were
>> rather limited.  The Epoch project and the Lucid Emacs project were
>> initiated to improve the X support.  For better or for worse, that's
>> where the separation came between the GNU Emacs and the XEmacs
>> projects.
>
>> gatekeeper.dec.com, accessible through anonymous FTP, contains many
>> versions of GNU Emacs software.  The oldest version they still have
>> available is a version of 19.34.
>
> Sorry, which release was that again, exactly?  ;-)
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
>> -- 
>> Brian Masinick
>> mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
>
> -- 
> Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
> Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
> (like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").

The directory /pub/GNU/emacs on gatekeeper.dec.com (also known as
gatekeeper.research.compaq.com) contains many versions of GNU Emacs,
including emacs-19.34b.tar.gz (the oldest one I could spot) and
emacs-21.3.tar.gz, the current version.

You can also find versions of Emacs on mirror sites in many locations
around the world.  I happen to like that particular location; it
usually works very well for me, personally.

-- 
Brian Masinick
mailto:masinick@yahoo.com


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