Re: Emacs

[zelinsky@us.net (David S. Zelinsky)]

Nathan E Norman <finn@midco.net> writes:

> Could someone explain the difference between emacs 19, emacs 20, and
> xemacs?  I'm emacs illiterate and I'm looking for a place to start.

Emacs 19 and 20 are two successive versions of GNU-Emacs, produced by the Free
Software Foundation's GNU project.  I use Emacs 19, and haven't v.20, but I
gather it has some new features, particularly in support of graphical
environments.

Xemacs is a different "development fork" of emacs, produced by a different
organization (I don't remember the name...).  It is very similar in many ways
to GNU Emacs (especially for someone not used to any kind of emacs), but is
much more oriented toward a GUI environment.

Various people will advocate passionately for either GNU Emacs or Xemacs, as
being far superior to other.  My own opinion leans toward GNU Emacs, because
it seems a little less cluttered to me, and I don't like menus and other GUI
sorts of things anyway.  But you should try them both and judge for yourself.

--
David Zelinsky
dsz@alumni.caltech.edu