EmacsConf 2024
Table of Contents
Overview
EmacsConf 2024 was held online on December 7-8, 2024, continuing the tradition of the annual conference dedicated to the Emacs text editor and its vibrant community. The conference ran from 9am-5pm EST (Toronto time) across both Saturday and Sunday, featuring two parallel tracks on the first day.
The event showcased 31 talks totaling 10.7 hours of presentations, complemented by 21 Q&A sessions adding another 7.8 hours of community interaction. Peak concurrent viewership reached 226 participants on the development track, demonstrating strong global engagement for this entirely virtual event.
EmacsConf remains fully committed to freedom, utilizing infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely of free software. Q&A sessions were conducted through BigBlueButton web conferencing, with talk pages providing waiting rooms that automatically refreshed when sessions began.
Notable Talks
Core Emacs Development
Emacs 30 Highlights
Philip Kaludercic presented the latest improvements and features in Emacs 30, covering significant enhancements to the editor's core functionality.
An Experimental Emacs Core in Rust
Troy Hinckley explored efforts to rebuild Emacs' foundation using Rust, investigating potential performance improvements and modern language benefits in this 21-minute talk with Q&A.
Beguiling Emacs: Guile-Emacs Relaunched!
Robin Templeton provided updates on reviving the Guile Scheme integration project, exploring alternative language implementations for Emacs.
Gypsum: My Clone of Emacs and ELisp Written in Scheme
Ramin Honary discussed reimplementing core Emacs concepts in Scheme, examining alternative approaches to the editor's fundamental architecture.
Org Mode and Productivity
The Future of Org
Ihor Radchenko explored upcoming developments in Org mode, one of Emacs' most transformative features for productivity, document management, and literate programming.
Literate Programming for the 21st Century
Howard Abrams examined modern approaches to combining documentation and executable code using Org mode, bringing Donald Knuth's vision into contemporary workflows.
User Experience and Accessibility
Re-imagining the Emacs User Experience with Casual Suite
Charles Choi demonstrated how the Casual Suite makes Emacs more accessible through improved menus and interfaces, lowering the barrier to entry for new users.
Fun Things with GNU Hyperbole
Mats Lidell showcased the Hyperbole system's capabilities for creating interactive documents and buttons, demonstrating advanced hypertext features within Emacs.
Specialized Applications
PGmacs: Browsing and Editing PostgreSQL Databases from Emacs
Eric Marsden demonstrated database management capabilities directly within Emacs, showcasing integration with PostgreSQL for development workflows.
p-search: A Local Search Engine in Emacs
Zac Romero presented a full-featured search tool built entirely within Emacs, enabling powerful local content discovery without external dependencies.
Key Themes
Alternative Language Implementations
Multiple talks explored reimplementing Emacs or its Lisp core in different languages (Rust, Scheme, Guile), reflecting ongoing interest in modernizing the editor's foundation while preserving its philosophy.
Enhanced User Experience
Several presentations focused on making Emacs more approachable through improved interfaces, menus, and user-friendly packages, addressing the editor's reputation for steep learning curves.
Org Mode Evolution
As a cornerstone of the Emacs ecosystem, Org mode received significant attention with talks on its future development and applications in literate programming.
Specialized Integrations
The conference showcased diverse integrations bringing external functionality into Emacs, from database management to local search engines, demonstrating the editor's extensibility.
Technical Achievements
The conference organizers significantly improved their infrastructure for 2024:
- Upgraded to BigBlueButton 3.0 with enhanced smart layout features
- Implemented WhisperX for superior caption generation with reduced hallucinations
- Automated scheduling via crontab to minimize manual intervention
- Streamlined communications through mail merge templates
- Simplified video uploads using PsiTransfer for global speaker collaboration
Notably, the organizer reduced preparation time to approximately 92.6 hours (October-November 2024) compared to 179.8 hours in 2023, demonstrating the value of automation investments while maintaining high quality.
Community Impact
Attendees praised the conference organization and atmosphere:
"emacsconf is absolutely knocking it out of the park when it comes to conference logistics"
The event was characterized as "a nice, cozy get-together where people share the cool things they've been working on," embodying the collaborative spirit of the Emacs community.
Resources
- Conference Website: https://emacsconf.org/2024/
- Talk Listings: https://emacsconf.org/2024/talks/
- Watch Videos: https://emacsconf.org/2024/watch/
- Sacha Chua's Notes: https://sachachua.com/blog/2024/12/emacsconf-2024-notes/
All talks are available for viewing with complete transcripts, enabling the community to benefit from presentations regardless of live attendance. The conference continues to exemplify the free software movement's values through its entirely libre infrastructure and welcoming, knowledge-sharing culture.