Emacs Is a Lispboard: Building Your Own Operating Environment
I argue that Emacs is not merely a text editor but a complete working environment where every tool shares a common runtime. By treating Emacs as a Lispboard, I build custom workflows, scripts, and interfaces without switching contexts or relying on external binaries. This approach transforms the editor into a cross-platform virtual machine where you define exactly how you want to work.
It's not a text editor: it's a complete working environment, with an embedded scripting language, its own software and a cross-platform runtime.
- xvilka
Something like Lem[1][2] could go even further because of the richer CommonLisp ecosystem compared to Elisp one.
- boscillator
> Suppose I want to work in a single place for all my contexts, both personal and professional.
This has always been my problem with adopting Emacs or Obsidian or any other app that purports to do this. Who are y'all working for that you can bring professional stuff onto the same system as personal stuff? I don't want my personal emails on my work computer, and my boss would be rather upset if I brought work emails onto my personal computer. I'd love one of these do everything apps that lets me tag and sync just stuff that ought to be synced.
- rbc
GNU Emacs is probably the easiest way to capture the spirit of working on the Lisp machines. Interlisp is an ongoing project that takes you even further down that road.
- jiehong
If we take a browser, and add things to make it a super app, we would basically get an extensible electron app, right?
Maybe, why not?
- behnamoh
It's a matter of philosophy; would you rather have multiple small apps that do only one job or one "super app" that does it all?
Ironically, starting from the former, I've now turned my tmux into the latter with so many utility apps integrated into it. But now I can see the benefits of each approach. Maintaining "super apps" is more challenging due to the coupling of so many pieces to each other.