Emacs is a very powerful Text Editor that is used by many "old timers" as an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). In other words, people edit, compile, and test their C programs using Emacs.
Emacs, at its very least, is a text editor. Additionally, it is a programming environment, a debugging environment, a directory lister, a file creator, a news reader, an email program, an adventure game, etc.
Emacs contains its own programming language (E-lisp), that allows you to upgrade and add functionality to the editor, even as you type into it.
Emacs is not for the faint of heart, and has a steep learning curve, but is expandable to allow you to become the best programmer you can. There are other IDEs for developing code (we have seen Matlab's). Some are flashier, some are better for specific tasks, but few are even close to the power and flexibility of the EMACS system.
Emacs is free. Emacs is wonderful. Emacs is open source.
Emacs has a large number of "shortcut" keys which take memorization. Most of the shortcuts are listed in the pull down menus, but the best typers/programmers learn the shortcut keys.
