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gumby · 2026-10-28T14:07:10.000Z

I started using Emacs at the AI lab in 1978. It's still my main development tool and probably still the program I spend most of my time in today.

DonHopkins · 2026-10-28T14:33:28.000Z

I named my cat Emacs, and he's only three years old. His sister's name is Pip.

And to answer the question I get a lot: no, it would be morally reprehensible to name a cat after an inferior editor such as "vi".

schoen · 2026-10-28T14:48:24.000Z

I often thought that a cat could be named /bin/cat. After all, many cats seem to enjoy being in boxes or bins!

petepete · 2026-10-28T15:00:24.000Z

And his brothers /bin/bzcat, /bin/pacat, /bin/netcat and /bin/sqfscat.

kragen · 2026-10-28T16:49:04.000Z

You're likely aware of this, and certainly Don is, but for those unaware, PIP was the RSX-11 and CP/M equivalent to /bin/cat.

frantathefranta · 2026-10-28T14:57:30.000Z

I can only imagine that Pip is an orange cat with typical orange cat characteristics like being crazy and breaking things occasionally.

DonHopkins · 2026-10-28T16:06:08.000Z

You are correct: Nominative and chromatic determinism strikes again!

Emacs is a powerful, flexible, majestic, extensible silver tabby, so he also acts like his namesake: textual and functional determinism.

neutronicus · 2026-10-28T16:51:46.000Z

you can get a dog and call it vi

gumby · 2026-10-28T17:55:41.000Z

I’m a cat person but I also am fond of dogs so I would consider that unkind.

DonHopkins · 2026-10-28T19:11:44.000Z

I still think you should have called your company Wingnut instead of Cygnus.

gumby · 2026-10-28T17:54:04.000Z

But does he have a gap buffer?

He is cute though.