Which version of emacs is best on Mac?

Question

On windows and ubuntu I just download the latest drops of emacs straight from the gun/fsf site, but they don't have Mac binaries there.

I have a decent version that came with Snow Leopard, but just running in the bash terminal. Is there a version that runs in a standalone window and is more Mac friendly?

I did try using macports, and downloaded one called emacs cocoa, but it didn't compile.

Answer 1

I tried Aquamacs, but found that it tried too hard to be Mac-like. This is proably good if you're a Mac user who is new to Emacs.

If you're an Emacs user new to Macs (like I was a couple years ago), you'll probably be more comfortable with Mac specific builds of standard Emacs. I get mine from Emacs for Mac OS X. Try the standard build on the home page, or click on the "Other Versions" button for more options. I've been using the latest pretest version for 6-12 months without problems.

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If you really want to be studly and build your own copy, look at the hints on the Emacs wiki page for Mac OS X. Note, in particular, that you want to build with options for nextstep and not cocoa or carbon:

./configure --with-ns
make
make install

Answer 2

Have a look at Aquamacs, which should be what you're looking for.

Answer 3

This is an older thread, but I came across it when I was looking to see if there were new developments in OSX emacs distributions. If you are using homebrew, you can install the latest version of cocoa emacs with:

brew install emacs --HEAD --cocoa --srgb

Note that you need to have bazaar installed. Alternatively, you can install it from the git mirror with --use-git-head

Answer 4

If you install MacPorts, you can install a decent build of emacs, and easily keep it updated. This has the advantage of giving you easy access to a bunch of other packages if you want them.

Answer 5

macports has several variants of emacs available:

emacs has the variants:
   gtk: Builds emacs as an X11 program with GTK+2 widgets
     * requires x11
   motif: Builds emacs as an X11 program with Motif widgets
     * requires x11
   universal: Build for multiple architectures
   x11: Builds emacs as a X11 program with Lucid widgets

There's also a Cocoa emacs:

emacs-app @23.1 (aqua, editors)
    The GNU Emacs text editor (Cocoa version)

Answer 6

Since you're on Snow Leopard, emacs-app from MacPorts won't compile, but emacs-app-devel will!

Answer 7

After years of using EMACS on various UNIXes, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2 and Windows, I finally stopped... I've been using Smultron instead. I found the Cocoa version of EMACS didn't really integrate that well with Mac OS, and didn't "feel" like normal EMACS for me.

Most of my development is done in specialized IDEs (XCode, Unity or Eclipse) these days, so I don't usually miss EMACS. Then again, I never managed to use EMACS as my OS, just as a text editor. :-)

Eddie is another decent free programmer's text editor for OS X.

Answer 8

Personally use carbon emacs 'cos it's the one that hasn't been adulterated with annoying tabs and looks the most like the original one. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CarbonEmacsPackage

One tip, if you're using spaces, is to change the switch between windows to be something other than ctrl-arrow, because every time you try and do wordwise tab in emacs it will take you to a different window which gets a little wearing after a while.

Fonts support is a bit limited with carbon emacs, which I haven't yet got round to having a fight with it about.

Answer 9

Have a look at http://www.sanityinc.com/full-screen-support-for-cocoa-emacs-on-osx for typster's git repo and patches to cocoa emacs with full screen support that built just fine for me. (I don't use ports or fink, now using homebrew)