From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Android port of Emacs Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2023 18:32:39 +0300 Message-ID: <83mt0zs9rc.fsf@gnu.org> References: <83v8fnslfz.fsf@gnu.org> <87v8fnh1h2.fsf@web.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="2337"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: luangruo@yahoo.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Fri Jun 16 17:33:32 2023 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1qABS6-0000JF-6j for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:33:30 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qABRR-0006M3-Pr; Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:32:49 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qABRP-0006Lf-4z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:32:47 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qABRO-0001uI-J4; Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:32:46 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=MIME-version:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: Date; bh=nFJJTxdmDbGOSLeXMvNAcKaJB4M1ivdFRmtS8d4LJHo=; b=ZwRlTlKY1vwGRTIdPy+T cFDH46RJdaslguTnYYJRiymuVmVXb1MQzCM1M9kNCDu6xM+mvIC9w31cV9XENHbqkc6Ome9nbTjr3 Vx8ANJ0wPI8YAkM/fuJFHhF4QuhoGGYpbIcvxBAjXzJjHxg3eT6s51CFIDkQB8Aqb3oYPJCp+K5Y5 qRWH2g71ZtERODDOcOXm/WdkngEnJZotb199R9ktIhaBab3Mw2HVlxO7JOqk135xpG9+xbyraQgeQ HUWL8nOZS3SzNAhnfCjbMxYJY/I4AaTMrI9hlcgo7uJCjCVVWAlP5CzuCttL6B2jercaww53ir2Wl Jvc+FEcMbw0Tfw==; Original-Received: from [87.69.77.57] (helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1qABRK-00082D-AP; Fri, 16 Jun 2023 11:32:44 -0400 In-Reply-To: <87v8fnh1h2.fsf@web.de> (arne_bab@web.de) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:306835 Archived-At: > From: "Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide" > Cc: Po Lu , emacs-devel@gnu.org > Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:16:16 +0200 > > Seeing how many people struggle to get working org-mode support on > Android — the many attempts at mobile org — and that more and more > people only know Android and will never own a regular computer, I think > the Android port is a serious advantage. > > We also do not need to support any proprietary platform with it, since > releases can be served via F-Droid that only provides Free Software. > > > An alternative would be for the Android support to be a separate > > project on Savannah. Maybe in the long run this would be better? > > I think that this would risk becoming stale. I’d rather see a somewhat > maintained port that moves slowly (but keeps working) than a separate > project that moves quickly until it stops and then breaks due to some > API change in Emacs which none of the Emacs developers spotted, because > it only affected an external project. > > From my experience the maintenance work created by a big external > project is larger than if the project is part of the tree, because with > the external project compatibility problems are not detected by the > usual tooling directly during development. > > Closing thought: one of the largest advantages of learning to use Emacs > instead of any other tool is that Emacs can follow you wherever you go. > Whatever the platform you may (be forced to?) use in the future, Emacs > will be there and your skills will be an advantage. The android port > closes a significant gap for this. I’ve seen several people move their > workflows to proprietary web applications because “then I can use it on > the tablet”. Emacs on Android can provide a viable alternative to that. Thanks, but what you say gives the POV of an Android user, not the POV of the Emacs maintenance. I have no doubt whatsoever that having Emacs on Android will benefit Android users; my doubts are whether we as the project should and can take upon ourselves this additional maintenance burden, and promise the Android users that we will maintain, let alone develop, this port for the years to come.