Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Eric Swenson]

I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only version 28.2 was available, I decided to try the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.  Installation went find, and I’m able to invoke the GUI emacs by simply executing “emacs” in a zsh shell.  When I do, it comes up in the dock, and I can set the “Keep in dock” menu item from the dock icon’s Options context menu.  If I exit emacs, however, I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.  The only way I appear to be able to start it is via the command line.

It turns out that “emacs” is an alias:

➜  ~ which emacs
emacs: aliased to /Users/eswenson/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/emacs/emacsclient.sh --no-wait

This script looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

emacsfun() {
  local cmd frames

  # Build the Emacs Lisp command to check for suitable frames
  # See https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Frames.html#index-framep
  case "$*" in
  *-t*|*--tty*|*-nw*) cmd="(memq 't (mapcar 'framep (frame-list)))" ;; # if != nil, there are tty frames
  *) cmd="(delete 't (mapcar 'framep (frame-list)))" ;; # if != nil, there are graphical terminals (x, w32, ns)
  esac

  # Check if there are suitable frames
  frames="$(emacsclient -a '' -n -e "$cmd" 2>/dev/null)"

  # Only create another X frame if there isn't one present
  if [ -z "$frames" -o "$frames" = nil ]; then
    emacsclient --alternate-editor "" --create-frame "$@"
    return $?
  fi

  emacsclient --alternate-editor "" "$@"
}

# Adapted from https://github.com/davidshepherd7/emacs-read-stdin/blob/master/emacs-read-stdin.sh
# If the second argument is - then write stdin to a tempfile and open the
# tempfile. (first argument will be `--no-wait` passed in by the plugin.zsh)
if [ $# -ge 2 -a "$2" = "-" ]; then
  # Create a tempfile to hold stdin
  tempfile="$(mktemp --tmpdir emacs-stdin-$USERNAME.XXXXXXX 2>/dev/null \
    || mktemp -t emacs-stdin-$USERNAME)" # support BSD mktemp
  # Redirect stdin to the tempfile
  cat - > "$tempfile"
  # Reset $2 to the tempfile so that "$@" works as expected
  set -- "$1" "$tempfile" "${@:3}"
fi

emacsfun "$@"

So “emacsclient –create-frame” is able to start emacs.

And emacsclient is:

➜  ~ which emacsclient
/usr/local/bin/emacsclient
➜  ~ ls -l /usr/local/bin/emacsclient
lrwxr-xr-x  1 eswenson  admin  54 Jan  9 14:50 /usr/local/bin/emacsclient@ -> /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/emacsclient

So why is it that neither clicking on /Application/Emacs.app in Finder, or using Spotlight, or clicking on the dock icon for Emacs will bring up Emacs?

I’m running macOS Ventura.  I’m using an emacs-nightly Homebrew from this date/time: 2023-01-06_00-09-32.

-- Eric (KC6EJS)

Emacs for early Macs? (was: Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura) [screenshot]

[Emanuel Berg]

Eric Swenson wrote:

> I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on
> /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.

Finder? Where are back in the 80s now?

I remember this, it run on Finder 6.7.? something on my dad's
super-expensive Mac Plus.

What an amazing screenshot:

  https://dataswamp.org/~incal/pimgs/dc.png

(That game is written in assembly language, I think.)

Where there Emacs for early Macs?

The programming I did, if that's the right word, happened in
HyperCard where you could do some flavor of Basic IINM ...

No mention of Emacs here - and those are hefty books!

@book{steve-jobs-en-biografi,
  author    = {Walter Isaacson},
  isbn      = {978-91-7429-285-5},
  publisher = {Bonnier},
  title     = {Steve Jobs - en biografi (Steve Jobs)},
  year      = {2012 (2011)}
}

@book{iwoz,
  author    = {Steve Wozniak},
  isbn      = {0-393-06143-4},
  publisher = {Norton \& Company},
  title     = {iWoz},
  year      = {2006}
}

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: Emacs for early Macs? (was: Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura) [screenshot]

[Eric Swenson]

On 1/9/23, 5:40 PM, "help-gnu-emacs-bounces+eric=swenson.org@gnu.org <mailto:swenson.org@gnu.org> on behalf of Emanuel Berg" <help-gnu-emacs-bounces+eric=swenson.org@gnu.org <mailto:swenson.org@gnu.org> on behalf of incal@dataswamp.org <mailto:incal@dataswamp.org>> wrote:





Eric Swenson wrote:





> I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on

> /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.





Finder? Where are back in the 80s now?





I remember this, it run on Finder 6.7.? something on my dad's

super-expensive Mac Plus.



I'm using Finder 13.1, which is part of macOS Ventura -- the latest macOS release!

Re: Emacs for early Macs? (was: Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura) [screenshot]

[Emanuel Berg]

Eric Swenson wrote:

>>> I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on
>>> /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.
>> 
>> Finder? Where are back in the 80s now?
>> 
>> I remember this, it run on Finder 6.7.? something on my dad's
>> super-expensive Mac Plus.
>
> I'm using Finder 13.1, which is part of macOS Ventura -- the
> latest macOS release!

Here is a screenshot of the 1983-1988 version, Finder 6.1:

  https://dataswamp.org/~incal/pimgs/comp/mac/finder-6-1.png

Compare time :)

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: Emacs for early Macs?

[Po Lu]

Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org> writes:

> Eric Swenson wrote:
>
>> I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on
>> /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.
>
> Finder? Where are back in the 80s now?
>
> I remember this, it run on Finder 6.7.? something on my dad's
> super-expensive Mac Plus.
>
> What an amazing screenshot:
>
>   https://dataswamp.org/~incal/pimgs/dc.png
>
> (That game is written in assembly language, I think.)
>
> Where there Emacs for early Macs?

There was, but I hope it was not distributed.

Carbon Emacs only supported Mac OS 8 and 9.  By that point, I think
Apple had stopped trying to copyright the menu bar.

Re: Emacs for early Macs?

[Emanuel Berg]

Po Lu wrote:

>> Where there Emacs for early Macs?
>
> There was, but I hope it was not distributed.

Not distributed, what do you mean?

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: Emacs for early Macs? (was: Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura) [screenshot]

[Jean Louis]

* Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org> [2023-01-10 04:41]:
>   https://dataswamp.org/~incal/pimgs/dc.png

Do you wish to say that is nice and fancy speed proprietary game, you
promote here, which we can't even play?

What a torture! 😈

Need swimming pool now.

-- 
Jean

Take action in Free Software Foundation campaigns:
https://www.fsf.org/campaigns

In support of Richard M. Stallman
https://stallmansupport.org/

Re: Emacs for early Macs? (was: Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura) [screenshot]

[Emanuel Berg]

Jean Louis wrote:

>> https://dataswamp.org/~incal/pimgs/dc.png
>
> Do you wish to say that is nice and fancy speed proprietary
> game, you promote here, which we can't even play?

Jean, you do me an injustice!

Feel free to play it here [1], as you see I have even prepared
zsh scripts for you to facilitate even more for you to play
it ...

And not just that, here is another screenshot [2] showing
a bunch of games - back then, you could sure fit a lot of
games on a 1.44M floppy. Those games are absolutely not
comparable to Dark Castle or Beyond Dark Castle tho and this
also show in size - for example, Dark Castle (with Finder, the
OS) need a whole 800K floppy to run!

Only a small warning, reduce volume before you start it as it
is set hy by default! That's partly what those scripts do but
that won't work for you without this file [3] so you have to
do it manually ... if you can manage ;) The scripts should
work fine anyway to just run the emulator.

But, how did you program for the early Macs (e.g., Mac Plus
which is emulated here) without Emacs? You'd use some other
editor I take it, anyone has details on that?

[1] https://dataswamp.org/~incal/emu/mac/
[2] https://dataswamp.org/~incal/emu/mac/img/games.png
[3] https://dataswamp.org/~incal/conf/.zsh/volume

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Eric Swenson]

I’ve gotten no answers to my earlier query:

I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only version 28.2 was available, I decided to try the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.  Installation went find, and I’m able to invoke the GUI emacs by simply executing “emacs” in a zsh shell.  When I do, it comes up in the dock, and I can set the “Keep in dock” menu item from the dock icon’s Options context menu.  If I exit emacs, however, I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.  The only way I appear to be able to start it is via the command line.

…

Is that because this list doesn’t really care much about the homebrew port?  Is there another mailing list I should use to ask about this?

-- Eric (KC6EJS)

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Ruijie Yu via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

Eric Swenson <eric@swenson.org> writes:

> I’ve gotten no answers to my earlier query:
>
> I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only
> version 28.2 was available, I decided to try the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.
> Installation went find, and I’m able to invoke the GUI emacs by simply executing
> “emacs” in a zsh shell.  When I do, it comes up in the dock, and I can set the
> “Keep in dock” menu item from the dock icon’s Options context menu.  If I exit
> emacs, however, I’m unable to launch it via the dock, nor by clicking on
> /Applications/Emacs.app in Finder.  The only way I appear to be able to start it
> is via the command line.

Try to run the emacs executable inside Emacs.app directly and see if
that does anything different.  As you noted earlier, your `emacs'
command in zsh is a zsh function -- try to run
/Applications/Emacs.app/path/to/emacs (don't remember the exact path but
hopefully you get the idea).

Best,


RY

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Daniel Fleischer]

Eric Swenson [2023-01-11 Wed 01:04] wrote:

> I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only version 28.2 was available, I decided to try
> the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.

Just wanted to recommend

https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus

It has 28, 29 and master (30) + support for native compilation which
homebrew Emacs casks don't have at all. It works perfectly, for many
years. 

-- 
Daniel Fleischer

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[John Covici]

I can't test ventura, but I made an alias in the Applications folder
pointing to (assuming you have homebrew)
/usr/local/cellar/emacs-mac/emacs-28.2-mac-9.1/Emacs.app (make sure
its there -- might vary a bit) and that worked for me.

On Wed, 11 Jan 2023 01:25:12 -0500,
Daniel Fleischer wrote:
> 
> Eric Swenson [2023-01-11 Wed 01:04] wrote:
> 
> > I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only version 28.2 was available, I decided to try
> > the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.
> 
> Just wanted to recommend
> 
> https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus
> 
> It has 28, 29 and master (30) + support for native compilation which
> homebrew Emacs casks don't have at all. It works perfectly, for many
> years. 
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Fleischer
> 

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici wb2una
         covici@ccs.covici.com

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Eric Swenson]

I'm using the emacs-nightly cask.  The result is an Emacs.app package in /Applications. Clicking on "Emacs.app" does nothing.  I tried making an alias in /Applications to the Emacs.app/MacOS/Emacs file, but clicking on the alias brings up a Terminal window, which invokes the emacs GUI.  I don't want that terminal window, just the GUI. This used to work perfectly find with the Emacs cask from homebrew.

-- Eric (KC6EJS) 






On 1/10/23, 10:45 PM, "John Covici" <covici@ccs.covici.com <mailto:covici@ccs.covici.com>> wrote:


I can't test ventura, but I made an alias in the Applications folder
pointing to (assuming you have homebrew)
/usr/local/cellar/emacs-mac/emacs-28.2-mac-9.1/Emacs.app (make sure
its there -- might vary a bit) and that worked for me.


On Wed, 11 Jan 2023 01:25:12 -0500,
Daniel Fleischer wrote:
> 
> Eric Swenson [2023-01-11 Wed 01:04] wrote:
> 
> > I recently decided to update my Homebrew-installed emacs, and because only version 28.2 was available, I decided to try
> > the emacs-nightly HomeBrew cask.
> 
> Just wanted to recommend
> 
> https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus <https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus>
> 
> It has 28, 29 and master (30) + support for native compilation which
> homebrew Emacs casks don't have at all. It works perfectly, for many
> years. 
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Fleischer
> 


-- 
Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is:
How do
you spend it?


John Covici wb2una
covici@ccs.covici.com <mailto:covici@ccs.covici.com>

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Eric Swenson]

On 1/10/23, 10:25 PM, "Daniel Fleischer" <danflscr@gmail.com <mailto:danflscr@gmail.com>> wrote:



Just wanted to recommend



https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus <https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus>



It has 28, 29 and master (30) + support for native compilation which

homebrew Emacs casks don't have at all. It works perfectly, for many

years.



I tried this and I get different strange behavior.  Starting emacs from the shell generates some warning messages to the shell and brings up the GUI.  When it is launched, an icon shows up in the Dock (good).  And I click the Options|Keep in Dock option – as my whole goal here was to be able to start from the Dock.  When I exit Emacs, the dock icon goes away (despite the “keep in dock”).  So I still can’t start emacs from the dock;



What gives?



  *   Eric

Re: Cannot start Emacs from Finder on macOS Ventura

[Eric Swenson]

On 1/10/23, 7:05 PM, "Ruijie Yu" <ruijie@netyu.xyz <mailto:ruijie@netyu.xyz>> wrote:



Try to run the emacs executable inside Emacs.app directly and see if

that does anything different. As you noted earlier, your `emacs'

command in zsh is a zsh function -- try to run

/Applications/Emacs.app/path/to/emacs (don't remember the exact path but

hopefully you get the idea).



Each of the executables in my Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS directory:



./                                                             Emacs-x86_64-10_11.pdmp                         bin-x86_64-10_14/                          libexec-arm64-11/

../                                                            Emacs-x86_64-10_14*                   launch.rs*                                           libexec-x86_64-10_11/

Emacs*                                                 Emacs-x86_64-10_14.pdmp                         lib-arm64-11/                                    libexec-x86_64-10_14/

Emacs-arm64-11*                                            bin@                                                     lib-x86_64-10_11/

Emacs-arm64-11.pdmp                  bin-arm64-11/                                   lib-x86_64-10_14/

Emacs-x86_64-10_11*                   bin-x86_64-10_11/                          libexec@



When I click on them, bring up a Terminal shell, and then the GUI.  The terminal shell stays up while Emacs is running, only going away when I exit Emails.



But in no case can I get the behavior I want – an Emacs Dock icon, which, when I click brings up Emacs.



  *   Eric