V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

EMACS
       Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping (slang, EMACS)


V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):

EMACS
       Editing MACroS (GNU)


The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

EMACS
 /ee'maks/, n.

    [from Editing MACroS] The ne plus ultra of hacker editors, a programmable
    text editor with an entire LISP system inside it. It was originally written
    by Richard Stallman in TECO under ITS at the MIT AI lab; AI Memo 554
    described it as ?an advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible
    real-time display editor?. It has since been reimplemented any number of
    times, by various hackers, and versions exist that run under most major
    operating systems. Perhaps the most widely used version, also written by
    Stallman and now called ?GNU EMACS? or GNUMACS, runs principally under
    Unix. (Its close relative XEmacs is the second most popular version.) It
    includes facilities to run compilation subprocesses and send and receive
    mail or news; many hackers spend up to 80% of their tube time inside it.
    Other variants include GOSMACS, CCA EMACS, UniPress EMACS, Montgomery
    EMACS, jove, epsilon, and MicroEMACS. (Though we use the original all-caps
    spelling here, it is nowadays very commonly ?Emacs?.) Some EMACS versions
    running under window managers iconify as an overflowing kitchen sink,
    perhaps to suggest the one feature the editor does not (yet) include.
    Indeed, some hackers find EMACS too heavyweight and baroque for their
    taste, and expand the name as ?Escape Meta Alt Control Shift? to spoof its
    heavy reliance on keystrokes decorated with bucky bits. Other spoof
    expansions include ?Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping? (from when
    that was a lot of core), ?Eventually malloc()s All Computer Storage?, and
    ?EMACS Makes A Computer Slow? (see recursive acronym). See also vi.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Emacs
GNU Emacs

    /ee'maks/ (Editing MACroS, or Extensible MACro
   System, GNU Emacs) A popular screen editor for Unix and
   most other operating systems.

   Emacs is distributed by the Free Software Foundation and was
   Richard Stallman's first step in the GNU project.  Emacs
   is extensible - it is easy to add new functions; customisable
   - you can rebind keys, and modify the behaviour of existing
   functions; self-documenting - there is extensive on-line,
   context-sensitive help; and has a real-time "what you see is
   what you get" display.  Emacs is writen in C and the higher
   levels are programmed in Emacs Lisp.

   Emacs has an entire Lisp system inside it.  It was
   originally written in TECO under ITS at the MIT AI
   lab.  AI Memo 554 described it as "an advanced,
   self-documenting, customisable, extensible real-time display
   editor".

   It includes facilities to view directories, run compilation
   subprocesses and send and receive electronic mail and
   Usenet news (GNUS).  W3 is a web browser, the
   ange-ftp package provides transparent access to files on
   remote FTP servers.  Calc is a calculator and symbolic
   mathematics package.  There are "modes" provided to assist in
   editing most well-known programming languages.  Most of these
   extra functions are configured to load automatically on first
   use, reducing start-up time and memory consumption.  Many
   hackers (including Denis Howe) spend more than 80% of their
   tube time inside Emacs.

   GNU Emacs is available for Unix, VMS, GNU/Linux,
   FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MS Windows, MS-DOS, and
   other systems.  Emacs has been re-implemented more than 30
   times.  Other variants include GOSMACS, CCA Emacs, UniPress
   Emacs, Montgomery Emacs, and XEmacs.  Jove, epsilon, and
   MicroEmacs are limited look-alikes.

   Some Emacs versions running under window managers iconify as
   an overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one
   feature the editor does not (yet) include.  Indeed, some
   hackers find Emacs too heavyweight and baroque for their
   taste, and expand the name as "Escape Meta Alt Control Shift"
   to spoof its heavy reliance on keystrokes decorated with
   bucky bits.  Other spoof expansions include "Eight Megabytes
   And Constantly Swapping", "Eventually "malloc()'s All Computer
   Storage", and "Emacs Makes A Computer Slow" (see recursive
   acronym).  See also vi.

   Version 21.1 added a redisplay engine with support for
   proportional text, images, toolbars, tool tips, toolkit
   scroll bars and a mouse-sensitive mode line.

   FTP from your nearest GNU archive site.

   E-mail: (bug reports only) .

   Usenet newsgroups: news:gnu.emacs.help,
   news:gnu.emacs.bug, news:alt.religion.emacs,
   news:gnu.emacs.sources, news:gnu.emacs.announce.

   [Jargon File]

   (1997-02-04)