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> One can build programmable editors in many interactive languages

Of course, one can - VSCode is a "programmable editor", no? Emacs is a bit different though, wouldn't you agree? It's rather a Lisp REPL that has a text-editor built on top of it.




A Lisp REPL is a user interface, not an implementation.

The first Emacs wasn't using Lisp at all. Wasn't it literally the Emacs?

> It's rather a Lisp REPL that has a text-editor built on top of it.

Just write an Emacs without a Lisp REPL. It can have the same Dired, just written in Python. There is nothing in Dired, which requires Lisp.


Dired is a file browser, sure, it can be written in anything. But what about something like Org-mode - with all its source-block magic, code execution, etc. etc.?


Why wouldn't one be able to implement this in JavaScript, Python, Smalltalk or even BASIC ?




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