Ramin Honarythe closest conceptual relatives are SmallTalk virtual machines.
After 40 years with it, I regard emacs as a programmable interactive environment for implementing (primarily text) workflows.
@PaniczGodek Yes, I agree with these two descriptions the most. I think of Emacs as a programmable “app platform,” which would also describe SmallTalk virtual machines just as well. And a programmable app platform could also be described as an interactive environment for implementing (primarily text) workflows.
The web is another similar app platform, though it is not as programmable, even though most browsers nowadays ship with a JavaScript REPL and allow you to store files in the browser’s own storage system. The lack of direct access to a local filesystem makes the web browser a lot less useful than Emacs, though the web certainly provides a much larger set of useful features out of the box compared to Emacs, especially multimedia, and 3D graphics rendering.
And yes, I believe “the concept of Emacs“ requires a programming language for extending it, otherwise it is not an app platform.
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