Re: emacs for Mac OS 10.3.1

[Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net>]

westin*nospam@graphics.cornell.edu (Stephen H. Westin) writes:

> I still haven't figured out the point to Fink. I just downloaded the
> source and followed the instructions to build Emacs.

fink is handholding for Mac users who have never compiled software in
their lives, which is most of us.  fink will download the source,
check dependencies, automagically configure and build the application
and install it.  It also does so in a special directory tree, /sw, so
that it can be deleted with a drag to the trash and does no
modifications to the / directory.

fink also allows the use of dselect and apt as alternatives for
obtaining prebuilt binaries, again managing dependencies which is
unfamiliar territory for Mac users (Mac applications used to never
share libraries, for example; less true after OS 7 and now hardly true
at all).

Basically, fink allows Mac users access to Unix and X11 apps with only
a slight toe-wetting into the full Unix experience.