To see why this isn't necessarily the case, add to your list all the text editors launched between 1992 and 2008 that are no longer around ("being around" defined as being able to install and run on whatever OS you're using on your main computer with no special effort).

Exactly. The post above yours is simply an illustration of survivorship bias.

I'd be interested to hear about former mainstream editors from that time that are gone. Especially cross platform and Open Source ones :)

Brief, Multiedit, Codewright, Semware, Slickedit and Epsilon used to keep the lights on at many programming/tech magazines. You don't hear much about them anymore...

Clark Maurer still updates Slickedit at least annually though.

You made me curious as I'd never heard of any of these editors... (except for Slickedit, I think)

A bit of digging around:

Brief seems completely dead, was killed off by Borland.

Multiedit seems operational: http://multieditsoftware.com/ It doesn't seem to active, but you can still buy the product.

Semware is still technically "alive": http://www.semware.com/ It was last updated in 2005, so there's that :)

Slickedit: is definitely operational: https://www.slickedit.com/ I have no idea why you're counting it as dead?

Epsilon: seems operational http://www.lugaru.com/ They even had a release in 2018.

To also clarify my previous statement, in the history of software, there's pre-mass PC and pre-internet. In my opinion the 2 periods are not comparable. Anything which was launched before 1995-9 or so is way more likely to have died. The mass PC and the internet have offered even commercial products much higher resilience.

Now, if a tool for developers reaches the mainstream, it super likely to stick.

I find very often that arguments by Emacs and Vim users come from a time before 1999 or so, when companies were super volatile. Look at this: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/08/01/rick-chapman-is-in...

The list from Softletter in the spolsky link kind of illustrated my point. Most of the editors I listed were big sellers until 1997 or so. And most of them are effectively dead with the exception of Slickedit. The reason I switched to vim was the lack of a decent text mode editor for Windows in the early 90s. I'd likely still be using Slickedit otherwise.

Also, the cited survivors have certain characteristics, like being small items with no "ecosystem" baggage and few dependencies in general.

It makes sense, I guess. As programmers, we naturally spend a lot of time with our editors of choice, so we become very attached to them, both emotionally and practically - with Emacs, at least, you accumulate your customizations and extensions over time, and you want all the time and effort you put into learning and customizing to pay off. And with any editor, there's the muscle memory - it's like you're offloading certain tasks to a dedicated piece of hardware, thus freeing your mind to focus on the task at hand. It's a kind of "lock-in", if you will, but it's the kind that enhances your productivity.

Original comment:

>One major reason for me to use Emacs and not newer software is that it is not only cross-platform but also gives some confidence that I will be able to use it in twenty years from now on a new platform.

You're ignoring the first half of the sentence:

BBEdit - not on Linux

Notepad++ - not cross platform

Textmate - not cross platform

Sublime - cross platform - but can I see the source? If not, I have little faith it will be around in 20 years.

My (heavily customized) Emacs environment on Windows gives me the same experience as in Linux. No warts at all.

I wasn't ignoring it, if you notice my final argument is for cross platform and FOSS stuff: Atom, Visual Studio Code.

There's even good native editors if you want that, Scite comes to mind.

Anyway, my point was just don't dismiss out of hand, don't belittle other people. Of course, if you're happy with Emacs, continue to be happy.

Oh, and the irony of this is me railing against Emacs/Vim when I'm also a Vim user and have been for at least 10 years. I say also because I've been using VS Code quite a bit lately.