you can read the threads on usenet at that time: March 20, 1985 is the launch of GNU emacs - first "clean" version of emacs is July 15, 1985 Fen Labalme messa

you can read the threads on usenet at that time: March 20, 1985 is the launch of GNU emacs - first "clean" version of emacs is July 15, 1985 Fen Labalme message: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/Vxp_Is2A5Cs/l6AmKi_rnwwJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/Vxp_Is2A5Cs/l6AmKi... Unipress message about the "portions of the GNU Emacs program are most definitely not public domain" https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/net.emacs/ZmwEvkr9Jfs/uO8AuWh8giMJ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/net.emacs/ZmwEvkr9Jfs/... RMS explaining what code he used: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/eyFgYVrEe0Q/Avxp17xRxV4J https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/eyFgYVrEe0Q/Avxp17... and then some more discussions: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/DRVCmoISBEU/efLdK-R_S40J https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/DRVCmoISBEU/efLdK-... https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/PXHNtn7v4Rc/OFi1Efl3N7EJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/PXHNtn7v4Rc/OFi1Ef... https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/-2IaisY2N0Q/r4Fd9NYb-ZMJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/-2IaisY2N0Q/r4Fd9N... https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/dytp5TT-02I/zUI4Ul3BMCcJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/dytp5TT-02I/zUI4Ul... and one from GvR https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/HJOjV7_2cyY/Bm6oUmB0WcEJ https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/HJOjV7_2cyY/Bm6oUm... https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/ilF9KtBimCk/WwO5NSJ3g50J https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.emacs/ilF9KtBimCk/WwO5NS... has the cost of getting an EMACS tape from RMS "GNU Emacs can be obtained from anyone who has a copy or by sending $150 payable to me" On old emacs source code: https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/emacs-history https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/emacs-history