Buttery Smooth Emacs https://www.facebook.com/notes/daniel-colascione/buttery-smooth-emacs/10155313440066102/ (a blunt but fair summary of Emacs' heritage)
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Steve Jobs famously asked for smooth scrolling (i.e. not line-by-line) in a Smalltalk demonstration and they changed the UI live.
Here's a lovely 2 minute YouTube video demonstrating that modification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEz08IlcNMg