Re: Emacs on OS X development

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:58:35 +0900 YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu <mituharu@math.s.chiba-u.ac.jp> wrote: 

>>>>>> On Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:41:33 -0400, Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> said:
>> OK, then: Mitsuharu-san, is there any way to have the NS port and
>> your Mac port merged, preserving the desirable features of both?
>> For instance, if GCD is available, to use GCD, but otherwise fall
>> back to NS behavior?  Are you interested in that level of
>> integration today, or do you prefer to keep your Mac port separate
>> and fully under your control?

YM> I don't think such merging makes a lot of sense.

YM> Most of the C APIs used in the Mac port (e.g., Core Foundation, Core
YM> Graphics, Core Text, and Grand Central Dispatch) are available and
YM> widely used on iOS as well as Mac OS X.  (Ironically, major difference
YM> between them lies in UIKit vs. AppKit, being C APIs mentioned above
YM> almost identical.)  If GNUstep incorporates these "Core" C APIs (IIUC,
YM> it is going to that direction more or less), then many part of the Mac
YM> port can be reused.  This doesn't require any knowledge of Emacs
YM> internals, and moreover benefits outside Emacs.

Let me ask a different series of questions, hoping to understand how we
can improve the Emacs experience on Mac OS X.

If the Mac port was part of Emacs, would you continue to contribute to
it there, handle Emacs bugs against it, and keep up with core changes
that affect it?

If we found a way for the two ports to coexist in one source tree inside
Emacs by using #ifdefs and other mechanisms, would you keep working on
the Mac port?  Or does it have to be a separate source tree?

Are there special tools required to build the Mac port, which casual
developers won't have?

Could you and the NS developers collaborate to accomplish this
coexistence?

Thanks
Ted