"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)
julianmiles
15 years 32 weeks 6 days 18 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
15 years 32 weeks 3 days 21 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
14 years 51 weeks 1 day 19 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.