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> if you want to build something like Emacs - a REPL that has a built-in text editor, you need a Lisp, because non-homoiconic languages DO NOT HAVE exactly same REPLs.

I don't think it makes sense. One can build programmable editors in many interactive languages. The language for an editor doesn't need to be Lisp. It could be Python, JavaScript, Ruby, PERL, Forth, ... Typically a form of EVAL or compile/load is enough to do so.

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> One can build programmable editors in many interactive languages

Of course, one can - VSCode is a "programmable editor", no? Emacs is a bit different though, wouldn't you agree? It's rather a Lisp REPL that has a text-editor built on top of it.

A Lisp REPL is a user interface, not an implementation.

The first Emacs wasn't using Lisp at all. Wasn't it literally the Emacs?

> It's rather a Lisp REPL that has a text-editor built on top of it.

Just write an Emacs without a Lisp REPL. It can have the same Dired, just written in Python. There is nothing in Dired, which requires Lisp.

Dired is a file browser, sure, it can be written in anything. But what about something like Org-mode - with all its source-block magic, code execution, etc. etc.?

Why wouldn't one be able to implement this in JavaScript, Python, Smalltalk or even BASIC ?

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