"A while back, Steve Yegge wrote a post on Emacs and its future. My executive summary of his post is that Emacs needs to compete or die - and the competition is the browser.
This got a little thread started on the Emacs development list, but not much activity..." --
* «...I said earlier that Firefox wants to be Emacs. It should be obvious that Emacs also wants to be Firefox. Each has what the other lacks, and together they're pretty damn close to the ultimate software package...» (Steve Yegge)
Since the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
I read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
julianmiles
3 years 37 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago
Why?
Why does a text editor need to browse the web or do any more than Emacs already does?
If anything, Emacs is already too bloated (I say this as a loyal Emacs user for over a decade).
can.axis
3 years 37 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago
Emacs as a Web browser...
Steve Yegge: « ...I said earlier that Firefox wants to be Emacs. It should be obvious that Emacs also wants to be Firefox. Each has what the other lacks, and together they're pretty damn close to the ultimate software package... Emacs as a CLR... RMS had this idea a long, long time ago... »
RMS: « To make Emacs display web pages with their correct appearance is a gigantic job. I don't think that linking Emacs with a web browser display engine is a feasible method.
I proposed years ago that we extend Emacs to the point where it can function as a word processor. This is mainly a matter of adding features that let you put things in a buffer (and save them in files) to get various kinds of formatting effects. To display web pages is an even more distant goal; it requires MORE new buffer and display features.
I would be very glad to see people start working on some of them. »
Ferk
3 years 3 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago
because it'd be really useful (and emacs is not just an editor)
I think that a powerful web browser inside of emacs (a bit like conqueror web browser, but in elisp) would be totally awesome.
It would certainly be very useful for debugging websites. Emacs lacks of good integration with any full featured CSS/Javascript web browser and developing websites in emacs is not as great as in other environments.
Moreover, browsing is the only thing that's forcing me to use the mouse (conqueror is not comfortable enough).
Emacs design is quite modular. Adding a new package for an emacs browser won't make emacs be more bloated than it already is. I think that emacs is no longer just an editor... it is a complete user environment. I already use dired emacs as my main file browser, more powerful than midnight commander.