"
Eventually Stallman found a Pastel language compiler
written by programmers at Lawrence Livermore National
Lab. According to Stallman's knowledge at the time, the
compiler was free to copy and modify. Unfortunately,
the program possessed a sizable design flaw: it saved
each program into core memory, tying up precious space
for other software activities. On mainframe systems
this design flaw had been forgivable. On Unix systems
it was a crippling barrier, since the machines that ran
Unix were too small to handle the large files
generated. Stallman made substantial progress at first,
building a C-compatible frontend to the compiler. By
summer, however, he had come to the conclusion that he
would have to build a totally new compiler from scratch.
In September of 1984, Stallman shelved compiler
development for the near term and began searching for
lower-lying fruit. He began development of a GNU
version of Emacs, the program he himself had been
supervising for a decade. The decision was strategic.
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