Dialect (computing) in the context of "Emacs"

Emacs (/ˈiːmæks/ ), originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor Macros"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor". Development of the first Emacs began in the mid-1970s, and work on GNU Emacs, directly descended from the original, is ongoing; its latest version is 30.2 , released 14 August 2025.

Emacs has over 10,000 built-in commands and its user interface allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work. Implementations of Emacs typically feature a dialect of the Lisp programming language, allowing users and developers to write new commands and applications for the editor. Extensions have been written to, among other things, manage files, remote access, e-mail, outlines, multimedia, Git integration, RSS feeds, and collaborative editing, as well as implementations of ELIZA, Pong, Conway's Life, Snake, Dunnet, and Tetris.