Álvaro Ramírez has weighed in on the Emacs Elevator Pitch challenge. Like Randy Ridenour’s response, Ramírez captures the spirit of the challenge perfectly. His answer is, to be sure, much longer than Ridenour’s but it’s easy to imagine it actually being delivered in an elevator.
Ramírez begins by saying that although Emacs seems like just an editor, it is, in fact, a portal to a world where everything works the way you want it to. He goes on to illustrate his point by presenting a long list of many of the things he’s done with Emacs. It’s a lengthy list. Just barely short enough to fit in a multi-floor elevator ride.
One of the things I liked about his list was that most of the items contained a link to the blog post that described that particular feature and how he implemented it. If you’re interested in small projects that leverage Emacs to accomplish some nominally non-editing function, Ramírez’s post serves as in index into those he’s done.
Finally, at the end of his post, Ramírez injects a bit of humor that neatly captures the absurdity of trying to make a case for Emacs in the time span of an elevator ride. Still, the challenge is interesting because it forces you to distill your reasons for loving Emacs to its essence.
Update : Added link to Ramírez’s post.