• TECO : Tape/text Editor and COrrector
• An editor and a language to write text editing macros
• The language was interpreted and imperative
• Bad reputation as a "write-only" language (APL, …)
• "TECO is not a text editor, it is a programming language"
• TINT: TINT Is Not TECO (very first recursive acronym)
• MUNG: MUNG Until No Good (cli for TECO)

• RMS extends TECO: real-time full-screen mode, active keys
• First Emacs (1976) was written as a set of TECO macros
• Both an editor and an environment to run editing macros
• Modeless editing by default (vs Vi modal editing)
• Emacs code-base is using C and Emacs Lisp

• Link to a tutorial
• Link to a guided tour
• Link to the Emacs manual
• Link to ordering a manual
• Quick start: open a file/directory
• Quick help: recover a file

Anything missing?

• menu-bar and tool-bar: make commands more accessible
• A buffer: the place to edit text
• A cursor: which state can give some information
• A modeline: a read-only place for quick info
• An echo area: a read/write place for quick interactions
• A fringe: where to display indicators
• A margin: for indicators (e.g. \ in the right margin)
• A header-line: for more modeline-like informations
• Transient regions: highlight selected text
• Scroll bars: visual clues on where you are
• Help text and tooltips: information on active text
• Text properties: for hints on syntax or actions
• Overlay properties: for more hints on actions

Emacs design extensible and configurable and place context at the heart of every interaction.

• linum-mode: display line numbers
• hl-line-mode: highlight current line
• guide-key-mode: display available keybindings
• helm-mode & ido-mode: contextual minibuffers
• M-x doctor RET: when you're really really lost

• C-h a : search for symbol or command
• C-h g : open the HTML manual in a browser
• C-h t : open the Emacs tutorial
• C-h k : type a key and get the command
• C-h f : search for function or commands
• C-h v : search for variables or options
• C-h C-d : help for debugging Emacs
• …
• C-h C-h : display more help commands

There is a dedicated help-mode to display help information and documentation-oriented commands like info and man.

Documentation materials:

• The GNU Emacs manual and guided tour
• Many online tutorials and screencasts
• https://www.emacswiki.org
• https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/

Documentation tools:

• GNU coding standards
• Recommandations on writing documentation
• M-x checkdoc RET: Emacs Lisp docstrings linter

"Is Emacs better at documenting itself than Google?"

Terminology is still a blocker for beginners:

• yank => copy
• kill => cut
• window => pane
• frame => window
• kill buffer => close buffer

• Org-mode is both a text editing/publishing tool and a todo list manager
• Org-mode is used to write documentation (and README.org on Github)
• Org-mode is used to track and display bugs (M-x debbugs-org RET)

Do you use source control?	Yes, Git
Can you make a build in one step?	Yes
Do you fix bugs before writing new code?	Generally
Do you have a spec?	For elements
Do you use the best tools money can buy?	Yes, Emacs
Do you have testers?	Yes, users
Do you do hallway usability testing?	Not enough
Do you have a bug database?	NO (Well, yes.)

See The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code

• There are 22087 commits as of 2019-03-28
• We don't have a roadmap (but good willing users)
• We don't use Github (but code.orgmode.org)
• We don't have a bug tracker (but a mailing list)
• We have a single mailing list for developers and users

Github made it easy to report issues and to start projects: it does not mean this "default" widely used interface is not questionable.

• We have both a manual and a "compact" guide
• We have a book version of the manual for Org 7.0
• We started Worg, a git-based collaborative documentation
• The Org manual, guide and worg docs are .org files
• We taught users how to give useful feedback in the manual
• We promote the notion of "ECM" (complete minimal example)
• The mailing list is welcoming, a place to learn

For the Org 7.0 book, we received the help of a professional editor, which taught us a lot.

• Bugs get a very large exposure
• It promotes a collective sense of responsability
• Each bug is discussed in a unique place (a thread)
• It is easy to refer to bugs with a simple URL
• Patches are all discussed on the list

• Enhance documents about Org syntax and elements
• Fix obsolete resources on Worg
• Test Org-mode with beginners
• Test Org documentation with beginners
• Publish documentation for the Org stable and unstable
• …

• fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/TECO
• fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs
• Where does the name "Emacs" come from?
• Stack Overflow: Helping One Million Developers Exit Vim
• How do I undo the most recent commits in Git?
• How to effectively use the self-documenting system of Emacs?
• The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code

The XKCD drawing is published here under the CC-by-nd 2.5 license.