Here's a transcript for you! (Made with Emacs, appropriately).
How Emacs changed my Life Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto @yukihiro_matz
1980
I started programming
BASIC
400 steps
1988
I met Emacs
on Sun-3
shared by 200 undergraduates
I tried Emacs
but I never used
Emacs was prohibited
It consumed too much precious memory
We are free to download free software
We are free to read the source code
I downloaded Emacs source code
and investigated
Emacs was my first Lisp interpreter
I learned a lot about language implementation from Emacs
Embedding integers in pointers
Mark and sweep garbage collection
Calling convention between Lisp and C
I really understood how Lisp work
I was fascinated by Lisp objects
Lisp objects implemented by C
Then I got a Sparc Station
I started to use Emacs
Emacs become part of me
If I didnt like anything in Emacs, I could change it
Emacs is totally configurable
Emacs made me realize anything can be changed by a programmer
It is total freedom
I could edit without thinking key binding
I didnt want to write anything without Emacs
Programs, Documents and Mails
so I wrote my own mail client
named "cmail"
in Emacs lisp
It was my first non-trivial (Emacs) Lisp program
I used it everyday
1993
I started Ruby development
with influence from Emacs implementation
Integers are coded in tagged pointers
It uses simple mark andsweep garbage collector
It uses similar object model to Lisp
Then I put Smalltalk-like OO system on top
For syntax, I wanted Algol/Ada/ Eiffel like one
But as an Emacs addict, I needed a language mode
auto-indent was a must
Back in 1993, there was no auto-indenting language mode for a language with such syntax
So I tried to write experimental ruby-mode.el
fighting with emacs lisp and regular expression,
for almost whole week
I somehow succeeded to implement auto-indentation
for a language with "end" delimiters
If I couldnt make ruby-mode to work
the syntax of Ruby would have changed
to more C-like one
too similar to other scripting languages
as a result, Ruby would nothave gained current popularity
Summary
1. Emacs taught me freedom for software
2. Emacs taught me how to read code
3. Emacs taught me power of Lisp
4. Emacs taught me how to implement a language core
5. Emacs taught me how to implement a garbage collector
6. Emacs helped me to code and debug
7. Emacs helped me to writeand edit text/mails/documents
8. Emacs helped me to be a effective programmer
9. Emacs made me a hacker
10. Emacs has changed my life
forever
Thank you
1. The transcript of the entire slideshare presentation is below the slide. This is the case for every presentation on Slideshare and you can skim that if you are in a hurry.
2. I dislike content-stuffed powerpoint slides like most viewers would. It is usually recommended to keep the text per slide at a minimum even if the content needs to be spread across many slides.
It seemed like a weird way to convey the content, but I found myself getting into it after a few slides, in a Zen sort of way :)
The author is Japanese, after all.
Of course, I've been a constant Emacs user since about 1990, so maybe I'm cutting him some extra slack. I love Emacs. It is so powerful and I feel that even after 23 years of daily use I'm still only touching the surface of what it can do.
In some ways Emacs has fallen behind the state-of-the-art, but the community is so vast and talented that they keep coming up with awesome add-ins to keep it competitive (thanks, guys!).
I too found the presentation much more interesting. The pauses in between each break/slide just gave me time to take in the significance. I think it was very appropriate here, and I'm glad I was introduced to this method of presentation. I think I'll use it myself some time.
Anyone with a slow connection knows what I'm upset about.
Needless to say, I quit when I was about 24 slides into the presentation.