More seriously though, I find these particular choices interesting. For one thing, they're indicative of his experience as a "greybeard" programmer [1]: Someone who was still active until very recently but started programming 50 years ago. He was always try to bring forwards some computer science ideas from the 60s that never really made it into the modern zeitgeist. His tool choices seemed to represent that. Old tools that had some foundational flexibility that allowed them to stay relevant through the decades.
[1] and not the curmudgeonly kind who will only use what they learned so many decades ago, as demonstrated by his selection of more modern tools for other tasks
I'm validated!
More seriously though, I find these particular choices interesting. For one thing, they're indicative of his experience as a "greybeard" programmer [1]: Someone who was still active until very recently but started programming 50 years ago. He was always try to bring forwards some computer science ideas from the 60s that never really made it into the modern zeitgeist. His tool choices seemed to represent that. Old tools that had some foundational flexibility that allowed them to stay relevant through the decades.
[1] and not the curmudgeonly kind who will only use what they learned so many decades ago, as demonstrated by his selection of more modern tools for other tasks