Welcome to the Dictionary of Programming Languages, a compendium
of computer coding methods assembled to provide information and
aid your appreciation for computer science history.
Browse the dictionary by clicking on a section:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
JK
L
M
N
O
P
QR
S
T
UV
WXYZ+
Get a full dump of the dictionary:
List of Names
Short Form
Full Form
-
Elisp
- See:
- Language type:
- Description:
Elisp is a dialect of Lisp that serves
as the scripting and extension language
for GNU Emacs, a very powerful text
editor. Elisp is a full Lisp system, but
does not conform closely to any particular
Lisp language standard.
Because it was designed to support creation
of new functionality for the Emacs editor,
Elisp has a broad set of string and text
handling operations, as well as special
functions and data types
for controlling the editor and interacting
with the user. In terms of syntax,
Elisp is close to Interlisp, but the
syntax of some Lisp constructs is
modified to support in-line documentation
of editor functions. Early
versions of Elisp lacked many standard
parts of conventional lisps, such a macros
and floating-point numbers, but newer
versions have these features as well as
many Common Lisp elements.
The Elisp engine, which is really the
core of GNU Emacs, is written entirely
in C. There is no Elisp compiler, but
GNU Emacs can pre-parse Elisp code into
simpler byte-codes that speed loading.
- Origin:
Richard Stallman, GNU Project, 1985.
- See Also:
- Remarks:
The GNU Project is an effort to create a
wholly free, unencumbered computing
environment. Initially projected to take
two years, the project is still going after
about 12 years. GNU Emacs (also its
close cousin XEmacs) is universally
acknowledge as the most powerful text editor
ever created. How many other editors can
support creation of an entire web browser
or threaded news reader or version control
system entirely in their extension language?
Elisp is a highly usable and friendly
Lisp dialect that has enjoyed great popularity
as a medium for extending Emacs.
GNU Emacs, and hence Elisp, is available
on all UNIX systems, as well as 32-bit
Windows and many other computers.
Elisp is very well documented by a
comprehensive manual distributed with
Emacs and available on the web.
- Links:
-
-
-
- Date:
- Sample code:
Descriptions in this dictionary are ©1997-99 Neal Ziring. Some
examples copyright of their respective authors. Some
technologies and languages are trademarked. Permission to
copy descriptions is granted as long as authorship credit is preserved.
Comments on this dictionary, corrections and suggestions, are all welcome.
Please use email, the address is ziring@home.com
[Ziring MicroWeb Home]
[Dictionary Start]
[Sign Guestbook]
Dictionary and script maintained by Neal Ziring, last major modifications 3/18/98. Most recent
additions to dictionary and master list, 1/00.