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(efaq)Difference between Emacs and XEmacs

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What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid Emacs")?
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   First of all, they're both GNU Emacs.  XEmacs is just as much a later
version of GNU Emacs as the FSF-distributed version.  This FAQ refers to
the latest version to be distributed by the FSF as "Emacs," partly
because the XEmacs maintainers now refer to their product using the
"XEmacs" name, and partly because there isn't any accurate way to
differentiate between the two without getting mired in paragraphs of
legalese and history.

   XEmacs, which began life as Lucid Emacs, is based on an early
version of Emacs 19 and Epoch, an X-aware version of Emacs 18.

   Emacs (i.e., the version distributed by the FSF) has a larger
installed base and now always contains the MULE multilingual facilities.
XEmacs can do some clever tricks with X and MS-Windows, such as putting
arbitrary graphics in a buffer.  Similar facilities have been
implemented for Emacs as part of a new redisplay implementation for
Emacs 21, and are available in the latest Emacs releases.  Emacs and
XEmacs each come with Lisp packages that are lacking in the other; RMS
says that the FSF would include more packages that come with XEmacs,
but that the XEmacs maintainers don't always keep track of the authors
of contributed code, which makes it impossible for the FSF to have
certain legal papers signed.  (Without these legal papers, the FSF will
not distribute Lisp packages with Emacs.)  The two versions have some
significant differences at the Lisp programming level.

   Many XEmacs features have found their way into recent versions of
Emacs, and more features can be expected in the future, but there are
still many differences between the two.

   The latest stable version of XEmacs as of this writing is 21.1.14;
you can get it at

   `ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/xemacs-21.1/xemacs-21.1.14.tar.gz'

   More information about XEmacs, including a list of frequently asked
questions (FAQ), is available at

   `http://www.xemacs.org/'