Re: what to do?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.10902.1258475018.2239.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 Devin LaCrosse <themidnighthief@gmail.com> wrote:

> i just recently discovered emacs on my new macbook pro. I read the  
> tutorial, i know how to navigate around emacs a bit. The one question  
> that's eating me up inside I can't seem to find answer for. Perhaps  
> you could help me? I very interested in computer science, emacs  
> appears to be an awesome program, I don't know how to program (yet) I  
> want to learn how. Can you please explain to me (as if i was 5 years  
> old ) what do i use/do with emacs i.e, make video games, websites,  
> math programs, please tell me!!!....Thanks in advance for i am excited  
> to use this newly discovered program.

A computer program is like a recipe, or the instructions in a how-to 
book.  When you learn to program, you'll learn a language that you can 
use to write these instructions.  You use Emacs to write these 
instructions to a text file.  Then you either use a program called a 
compiler to translate this file into machine code that can be executed 
by the computer directly, or an interpreter that reads the file and 
performs the instructions on the fly.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***