Re: [Mac-emacs-users] Emacs mode question from soon to be mac-emacs user

[Andrew C. <ak...@sh...>]

> I have not used mac-emacs or mac ever, I'm a unix guy with a love of
> emacs.  I'm about to buy a laptop, and now that OSX is based on
> unix, I would love to give it a try.  So I ventured to the local
> CompUSA to play with the G4 powerbook.  The first thing I did was to
> open a shell and run emacs. To my surprise it ran in terminal mode,
> like running it on solaris when the DISPLAY variable is not set.  I
> assume emacs also runs in it's own window in a "gui-mode".
> 
> Is this true?
> 
> Sorry for the newbie question, but emacs is a MUST before I buy any
> computer.

Hi John,

The version of Emacs that came with Mac OS X can only run in a
terminal and will not run with its own GUI.  It is basically a patched
version of Emacs 20.7.

My patch to compile Emacs 21.1 on Mac OS X will run both in a terminal
and as a GUI application (with its own windows, menu bar, scroll bars,
and so on).  I only distribute a source version so you'll need to
compile the it yourself.  You'll also be able to find binary versions
on the Web prepared by other people.

There are also emacs-on-aqua and a patch to compile XEmacs for Mac OS
X.  The latter requires XonX (X Window) to be installed to run.
Please contact their respective authors/maintainers for information.

Andrew.