from Hacker News

GNU Emacs ported to Android

by cycojesus on 8/14/12, 1:07 PM with 44 comments

  • by babarock on 8/14/12, 2:41 PM

    Just downloaded it. Here are a few things to note:

    - As soon as installed, the app will download emacs from a 3rd party repo. You have the option to specify your own, I picked the default one.

    - The app consists apparently of a terminal emulator and a Bourne shell (clone?). emacs will reside inside this emulator and the shell.

    - The app seems very young, segfaults are frequent. A common cause seems to be font-size. If font size != 20px at startup, app will segfault. (you can change it once the app is running).

    - The buffers do not resize dynamically when I show/hide the keyboard. On my SGS2 in landscape mode, that leaves very little screen space for the buffers.

    - The app greatly benefits from Hacker's Keyboard or any similar advanced keyboard.

  • by sigzero on 8/14/12, 1:53 PM

    Err....Emacs is probably a better OS than Android. :)

  • by jimktrains2 on 8/14/12, 2:49 PM

    So? A Vim port's been out for a few months.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.momodalo.a....

    /dons my flame-retardant jacket

  • by CmdrKrool on 8/14/12, 4:51 PM

    Anyone trying to use this on a device with its own keyboard? eg. http://www.androidauthority.com/best-keyboard-qwerty-android...

    Be interested to hear how usable you can make it. Whether you can remap keys or buttons to all the major modifiers.

    Emacs 23 on the Nokia N900 is the reason I recently bought that phone even though Nokia is so uncool now and everything (works excellently, BTW).

  • by malkia on 8/14/12, 9:54 PM

    It segfaulted here (11). Since the shell was available, ls -l revealed that only directories had +x on them, and none of the scripts. Not sure whether that makes any sense (or simply was not compiled for the right arm architecture).

    It does not work from both Nexus 7 Tablet, and Google Nexus phone (latest)

  • by einhverfr on 8/14/12, 1:53 PM

    So how do you enter the control sequences?

  • by drcube on 8/14/12, 2:12 PM

    Every couple of weeks since I started using Android, I've checked the Play store to see if Emacs was there. So even though I don't know what I'll do with it yet, I'm excited to download the GNU Emacs app.

    Anybody have any ideas for what to do with Emacs on a phone?

  • by vinayan3 on 8/14/12, 3:12 PM

    Good work but I have some issues with the concept. I mean using all the keyboard shortcuts must be a pain. Did they try to make it use the touch interface at all?

  • by pbnjay on 8/14/12, 2:56 PM

    Now the editor's kitchen sink also includes phone calls!

  • by laconian on 8/15/12, 12:22 AM

    I don't know if I could adapt to Emacs with another input device. Part of being good at Emacs is training your muscle memory. I probably can't even describe half of the inane chords I do unless I was able to observe my hands performing them.

  • by kelvie on 8/14/12, 5:25 PM

    Doesn't this have to be open-sourced? Emacs is GPL'd. I might want to help out with the development.

  • by rogcg on 8/14/12, 4:53 PM

    We are on the way to start good development on an Android tablet! FTW

  • by samuel1604 on 8/14/12, 2:39 PM

    seg11 on nexus 7 :(

  • by Create on 8/14/12, 4:35 PM