Re: Android port of Emacs

[Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Is this going to be your style in discussing issues pertaining to the
> Android port?  If so, I will decide not to land it right here and now.
> Because it's extremely likely that most people who will ask or post
> opinions or comment on the Android support will not have "a good
> understanding of the code within the feature/android branch", and so
> this unkind response could be a preview of what we are in for.  And
> that is unacceptable, from my POV.

No, it's not -- the problem is that that research leaves much to be
desired: he is trying to debate technical details of the Android port
from the POV of an Android user, without possessing an understanding of
both the technical and user-interface issues involved.  Such debate is
not constructive, especially when Termux (the terminal emulator) is
regularly being conflated with the Termux X server.

> So please in the future make a point of respecting others who speak
> about this more than the above indicates.

OK.

> Gregory may or may not know as much as you do about this, but he
> definitely invested some effort into researching the issues, and
> should be commended for that, not pounced upon.

Then let me explain my position again: on touch-screen devices with
small screens, using PC input methods through an X server becomes an
exercise in frustration.  With the Android file-system APIs, many files
cannot be accessed through the Unix VFS alone.  On those devices, the
mouse pointer emulation provided by X is difficult to use, as it relies
on different series of counterintuitive gestures, and various different
input ``modes''.  Finally, various minor UI features, such as yanking
media, displaying dialog boxes while in the background or iconified,
automatically displaying the OSK when required, are not possible inside
an X server running on Android.

I experienced these problems with Termux first-hand, and they motivated
me to start writing a new port.

So far, nothing that was said in this thread refutes that.  And
hopefully, you can understand why I get extremely frustrated when the
nature of those problems is called into question, especially in the face
of positive feedback by many users.

Thanks.