# I have officially retired from Emacs

DevFeed: [I have officially retired from Emacs](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/i-have-officially-retired-from-emacs-20514.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://nullprogram.com/blog/2026/04/26/>)

Published: 2026-04-26T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Chris Wellons](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/chris-wellons.md>)

Topics: [Emacs](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/emacs.md>), [Vim](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vim.md>), [C++](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/c-plus-plus.md>), [GUI](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gui.md>), [Maintainers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/maintainers.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [c-plus-plus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/c-plus-plus.md>), [cpp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpp.md>), [elfeed](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/elfeed.md>), [emacs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/emacs.md>), [gui](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gui.md>), [maintainers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maintainers.md>), [net-11](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/net-11.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes retiring from Emacs after 20 years of daily use and gradually switching to modal editing and Vim. They replaced two Emacs-based applications they relied on, M-x calc and Elfeed, with stackcalc and Elfeed2, multi-platform native C++ GUI applications. The article also discusses the need for new maintainers and the trade-offs involved in achieving feature parity.

## Source excerpt

This article was discussed on reddit and on Hacker News. This past Tuesday I typed C-x C-c in Emacs for the last time after 20 years of daily use. Though nearly half that time was gradually retiring it, switching to modal editing, then to Vim. Emacs is a platform, and I'd grown accustomed to its applications, especially those I built myself. There was no particular hurry, so replacements came slowly. With my newly-acquired superpowers I could knock out the last two pieces in a few days' work, namely M-x calc with stackcalc and Elfeed with Elfeed2. I'm especially excited about the latter because it already exceeds the original. Both are multi-platform, native C++ GUI applications using native UI components. These actively-in-use packages require new maintainers (apply on the project's issues/discussion): @ (about) aio (about) bitpack Elfeed (apply here) Impatient (about) javadoc-lookup (about) json-rpc memoize (about) nasm-mode (about) simple-httpd (about) Skewer (about) weak-ref (about) x86-lookup (about) No wonder it took so long for me to move on! I'm not handing these off to just anyone, and you'll need to establish your reputation. Having already made contributions is a good sign, even if never merged. I'm willing to transfer them off my namespace, though you'll need to manage the Melpa hand-off (on which I'll sign-off). If there are no takers, these projects will be archived but not deleted. Trying out wxWidgets The Emacs Calculator is amazing and the best calculator I've ever used, which is why nothing I could find was going to replace it. My clone uses GMP and MPFR for multi-precision, so it's far faster, as to be expected, but it's not nearly at feature parity. It's missing esoteric features including symbolic processing. Though it's enough to cover all of my own usage. I can add more features later. The Emacs Calculator manual served as a specification when building stackcalc. Elfeed has been a cornerstone of my daily routines for the past 13 years. Nothing