Re: C-g crash in C-x C-f (OSX Lion)

[chad <yandros@gmail.com>]

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On Dec 19, 2011, at 9:25 AM, René Kyllingstad wrote:

> 
> This is alas a common misunderstanding about the Mac port.
> 
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-11/msg00424.html

As Dan mentioned, these messages from 4 years ago don't paint a very accurate current picture.  Adding to the discussion he linked, I'll say that the current situation is even worse than the 2007 messages imply; in Lion (aka macosx 10.7), the current development tools won't build a gui Carbon app, and the situation is only getting worse.  The low-level functionality continues to work in a sort of zombie legacy model, but it seems clear that the situation will only deteriorate over time.

Meanwhile, the Mac port is missing multi-tty, bidi editing, gnutls, and lexbind.  It doesn't have integrated themes, packages, Org, or CEDET (to name just a few).  It doesn't help GNUstep users at all. If xembed catches on, it's unlikely that it'll ever reach the Mac port.  

I think it's great that you have a version of Emacs that you like and that works for you.  Everyone jumps off the development train at some point, and just uses tools that work for them -- I'll hazard that this is even more common among Emacs-on-macosx users (speaking for myself, emacs is more or less the only train that I'm still `on').  I tried out the Mac port for a little while, and it seemed great as a usable emacs.

What it's not, though, is a developing, growing emacs. While my emacs needs are pretty modest lately, I find the Mac port is missing too many things that I've come to expect from the leading edge.  That doesn't make it a bad emacs, but it does mean that it is (clearly, IMHO) not the emacs for everyone.  This periodic assertion by happy Mac port users that some one/group is being silly/stupid/stubborn by not simply adopting the Mac port as the One True emacs ignores the desires of those of us who use the development head of GNU emacs directly in an effort to improve emacs itself (a group that I'll assert is a majority of the people reading emacs-devel).  

The Mac port is great, but it's only great if you don't mind this (IMO colossal) caveat:

On Nov 28, 2011, at 2:45 AM, YAMAMOTO Mitsuharu wrote:

> * A few users asked me about the status/plans of the Mac port based
>    on Emacs 24.  Currently I don't have any development branches for
>    that.

Hope that helps,
*Chad




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