On green text on a blank background: I think this started on CRTs where displaying more than one of the RGB colors had focusing problems and green looked best. LCDs do not have much of this problem.

I have been using Emacs and Gawk for 15-20 years and still find them great for text processing. I am using them currently for generating C programs from specifications.

I find it amazing that a co-worker uses Emacs but refuses to use dired - IMO, that is one of the great features.

Always nice to see new stuff here.