Ein paar Zitate draus:

I think one of the interesting things is that vi is really a mode-based editor. I think as mode-based editors go, it pretty good.

One of the good things about EMACS, though, is its programmability and the modelessness. Those are two ideas which never occurred to me.

The fundamental problem with vi is that it doesn't have a mouse and therefore you've got all these commands. In some sense, its backwards from the kind of thing you'd get from mouse-oriented thing.

I think the wonderful thing about vi is that it has such a good market share because we gave it away. Everybody has it now.

EMACS is a nice editor too, but because it costs hundreds of dollars, there will always be people who won't buy it. [Anmerkung: das war 1984, vor GNU Emacs, da gabs nur Unipress Emacs das kommerziell war, von James Gossling (Java Erfinder) uebrigens]

I tried to use EMACS and I liked it.The problem was I spent all my time programming it because it was improving so fast that my programs kept breaking. I got tired of maintaining my macros

I used to have a Concept terminal which had eight pages of memory, like a mini-version of a window system. I just don't like to lose what's in the window. [Der duerfte folglich Linux virtuelle Konsolen moegen]

This business of using the same editor for 10 years - it's like living in the same place for 10 years. None of us does it. Everyone moves once a year, right?

Systems are going to get a lot more sophisticated. interfaces are done in the Macintosh style. People who use these machines may run applications but won't necessarily be skilled at putting applications together.

I don't think the Macintosh software is of any value. I'm not even sure it can be taken to a larger machine. You can spend your time making software small, or you can spend time making it functional and sensible. You can't do both. [Was Apple nach 15 Jahren dann auch begriffen hat]
--
hardware runs the world, software controls the hardware,
code generates the software, have you coded today

Dann wurde das auf mehrere Maschinen portiert, z.B auf Multics (in MacLisp reimplementiert), spaeter auch am MIT auf die Lisp Machine, IIRC letzteres durch RMS (der war am Lisp System OS jedenfalls beteiligt).

Spaeter hat James Gossling ein Emacs in C fuer 32bit Unix geschrieben, das eben 1984 als Unipress Emacs im Verkauf war, und das im Interview erwaehnte ist.

Noch spaeter hat RMS, als er fuer GNU in Unix einstieg und die dortigen Editoren zum schreien fand, dann GNU Emacs gemacht, indem er ein Lisp-Maschinen aehnliches Lisp (M-Lisp) auf Unix nachimplementierte (dazumals vermutlich SunOS) und das Lisp-Emacs darauf nachimplementierte.

Teil der Details, von Multics aus gesehen
--
hardware runs the world, software controls the hardware,
code generates the software, have you coded today