Comment by throwaway_yy2Di

Here's a transcript for you! (Made with Emacs, appropriately).

    How Emacs changed my Life Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto @yukihiro_matz
    1980
    I started programming
    BASIC
    400 steps
    1988
    I met Emacs
    on Sun-3
    shared by 200 undergraduates
    I tried Emacs
    but I never used
    Emacs was prohibited
    It consumed too much precious memory
    We are free to download free software
    We are free to read the source code
    I downloaded Emacs source code
    and investigated
    Emacs was my first Lisp interpreter
    I learned a lot about language implementation from Emacs
    Embedding integers in pointers
    Mark and sweep garbage collection
    Calling convention between Lisp and C
    I really understood how Lisp work
    I was fascinated by Lisp objects
    Lisp objects implemented by C
    Then I got a Sparc Station
    I started to use Emacs
    Emacs become part of me
    If I didnt like anything in Emacs, I could change it
    Emacs is totally configurable
    Emacs made me realize anything can be changed by a programmer
    It is total freedom
    I could edit without thinking key binding
    I didnt want to write anything without Emacs
    Programs, Documents and Mails
    so I wrote my own mail client
    named "cmail"
    in Emacs lisp
    It was my first non-trivial (Emacs) Lisp program
    I used it everyday
    1993
    I started Ruby development
    with influence from Emacs implementation
    Integers are coded in tagged pointers
    It uses simple mark andsweep garbage collector
    It uses similar object model to Lisp
    Then I put Smalltalk-like OO system on top
    For syntax, I wanted Algol/Ada/ Eiffel like one
    But as an Emacs addict, I needed a language mode
    auto-indent was a must
    Back in 1993, there was no auto-indenting language mode for a language with such syntax
    So I tried to write experimental ruby-mode.el
    fighting with emacs lisp and regular expression,
    for almost whole week
    I somehow succeeded to implement auto-indentation
    for a language with "end" delimiters
    If I couldnt make ruby-mode to work
    the syntax of Ruby would have changed
    to more C-like one
    too similar to other scripting languages
    as a result, Ruby would nothave gained current popularity
    Summary
    1. Emacs taught me freedom for software
    2. Emacs taught me how to read code
    3. Emacs taught me power of Lisp
    4. Emacs taught me how to implement a language core
    5. Emacs taught me how to implement a garbage collector
    6. Emacs helped me to code and debug
    7. Emacs helped me to writeand edit text/mails/documents
    8. Emacs helped me to be a effective programmer
    9. Emacs made me a hacker
    10. Emacs has changed my life
    forever
    Thank you