Re:Even more hindsight on Vim, Helix and Kakoune
by gnull on Thursday June 22, 2023 @06:01PM
(#36439705)
I meant Notepad as an example of something that implements the basic "move the cursor between the characters with arrow keys and type to insert text" way of interacting with text. In terms of this, Emacs is exactly Notepad + plugins. And plugins (unless they drastically change the way you interact with text, like Evil mode) are usually doing something that is orthogonal to the editing model, and can be slapped on top of any editor with any model.
I didn't mean that one is based on the other historically. Notepad was meant as the most minimal example that implements one of the Emacs'es aspects.
Emacs (1976) predates Notepad (1983).
I do understand what you mean, though. For people using Windows, Emacs needs to be sought out and installed, this effort needs to be justified (assuming one is permitted to install software at all), and hence the requirement for Emacs to "bring something new to the table" over the default option, Notepad, which is just /already there/.
The most basic, implicit, requirement, then, is exactly as GP says: availability. All else follows.