Re: Where docs on what makes Emacs unique/special? the philosophy? etc.?

[rustom]

seberino@spawar.navy.mil wrote:
> Where find HIGH LEVEL docs on Emacs philosophy/history/paradigm?
>
> I'm about to give a talk on Emacs to a local Linux group and thought
> I'd research what makes Emacs *unique*.
>
> I want docs that tell more than just a new neat minor mode....
>
> I'm looking for the essence of what makes Emacs special and unique
> and new ways of thinking about Emacs.
> Chris

Very good question. And I too await good answers.
Here are some from me.
1. Look at the emacs wiki http://www.emacswiki.org -- all sorts of
stuff -- both details and philosophy -- there only unfortunately
finding it when you need it is the proverbial needle-in-haystack
(which is probably the same as saying that I dont know how to navigate
it)
2. Famous emacs bloggers such as
-- Steve Yegge see http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/effective-emacs
-- Sacha Chua (well use google :-) )
3. Then theres Xah Lee (duck) -- some good needles there in a (ahem)-
stack.
Seriously the problem with XL is that the sometimes valid always
controversial opinions are so loud and abusive that its hard to
separate the content from the cacophony.

Heres my attempt at rationalizing my affair with emacs

-- Small is more important than big (eg a nifty (set of) keystrokes
may be as important as a fancy
mode)
-- Keyboard is better than mouse
-- Screen real estate is costly (unless you have a dual 21") dont
waste it on geegaws (eg I keep toolbar, scrollbar always off and
menubar also sometimes off)
-- The profile of emacs users is different today from what it was when
emacs was invented an ace-geek-programmer. The hot things today are
non-programming modes like org, meta-modes like icicles etc  The emacs
docs (and community) does not take sufficient cognisance of this
shift.
-- Customization -- the most famous aspect of emacs. I'll let others
wax about that but in my view its got worse with time (I dont like
customize...)
-- Programmers editor -- Ultimately you cannot understand emacs unless
you grok programming and when you do, it sets the bar not just for
programmable editors but for programmable anything.  (Or maybe I just
belong to the older -- programmer -- generation)