How scalable are Emacs Client-Server-Applications?

Question

Emacs is officially called a "text editor", but is used by many as an operating system. More precisely, Emacs can be described as a Lisp -interpreter and an environment for developing interactive applications. It has a client-server architecture and a huge number of well-documented features. Being a Lisp -interpreter, it is also very customizable.

However, in addition to all these advantages, I have never heard of commercial (or “high load”) client-server applications based on Emacs. It seems to be used mainly by highly qualified specialists with an IT / math background. Why is this so? Has anyone ever thought about using Emacs (and Elisp) for their serious client-server application, or is Emacs just not suitable for this kind of mission? Is it not sufficiently scalable or is it a computational model that is not suitable for developing a team in an industrial environment?

What are the limitations of using Emacs as a platform for large-scale client-server applications? Can I use an Emacs server for a web application (with web browsers as clients)?

Answer 1

Of course, it is possible (obviously Turing link ).

However, Emacs is not multi-threaded, and I doubt anyone is writing a non-threaded web service ...

Answer 2

Scalability is not the goal of Emacs design, as there is no need for a text editor or any other application that resides on Emacs, which usually focuses on the client rather than the server, as it has a powerful editing environment that is more useful.