📝What makes Emacs extensible?

• Focus on extensibility

  • Emacs was built with focus on extensibility from the very beginning.

• Demand for extensibility

  • Because Emacs has reputation of being extensible, most people expect extensibility from Emacs and Emacs modes. This makes authors add options to customize behavior that nobody normally adds.

• Emacs Lisp

  • Emacs Lisp makes it easy to redefine or patch any function

  • Extensible system makes it easy to apply the changes

• Emacs is self-describing

  • Emacs allows exploring itself: extensive documentation for most functions, Emacs allows looking up documentation, jump to definition, etc.

• Open Source

See also

• Emacs as a user interface library

Backlinks

• 📝 Extensibility requires introspection
• 📝 Open source makes systems more extensible
• 📝 § Extensible system