`emacs` is the greatest operating system ever invented.

Haha... only serious. Actually, it's a very extensible editor for programmers and hackers, created by programmers and hackers with a rich ecosystem making it possible to use as everything from a simple text editor or even your "operating system" that you live inside of.

Over 44 years of development and 24 major releases, emacs has such depth and breadth that it can be so daunting to newcomers they find themselves retreating to the relative safety and comfort of such programs as `pico`, `nano`, and worst of all, `vim`.

That last one was, of course, a joke at vim user's expense, but even if you have never used emacs, you've probably heard of the venerable 'emacs vs vim holy war'. I will say definitively now that everyone is wrong, ed is the standard editor! (see: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed.msg )

So whether you've never heard of emacs, heard all about it and want to see what all the fuss is about, or tried to take a few forays into emacs-land and found yourself lost, this class will help you get started with the basics of operating, configuring, extending, and most importantly, learning emacs.