There is a third option (in addition to the native app and Termux) to get emacs running. The recently added (to at least Pixel phones) "Terminal" app runs a standard Debian distribution inside a VM. emacs can be installed there in exactly the same way it would be on any other Debian machine.
Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
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Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#72I was quite surprised too to learn how well terminal apps work on Android. Termux is amazing.
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#73Ultimate .emacs on termux, note python-hook
(menu-bar-mode -1)
(setq inhibit-splash-screen t)
(setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message t)
(global-set-key "å" 'hippie-expand)
(global-set-key "∆" 'toggle-truncate-lines)
(global-set-key (kbd "") 'toggle-truncate-lines)
(xterm-mouse-mode 1)
(global-set-key (kbd "") 'scroll-up-command)
(global-set-key (kbd "") 'scroll-down-command) ;
(global-set-key (kbd "") 'scroll-up-command)
(global-set-key (kbd "") 'scroll-down-command) ;
(setq case-fold-search t)
(setq-default truncate-lines t)
(setq sort-fold-case t)
(autoload 'scad-mode "scad-mode" "A major mode for editing OpenSCAD code." t)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.scad$" . scad-mode))
(require 'scad-preview)
(global-set-key (kbd "Å") 'dabbrev-expand)
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'whitespace-mode)
(setq whitespace-line-column 128)
(custom-set-faces
'(default ((t (:background "#000000" :foreground "#ffffff"))))
'(whitespace-space ((t (:background "black" :foreground "blue"))))
'(whitespace-tab ((t (:background "black" :foreground "blue"))))
'(whitespace-newline ((t (:background "black" :foreground "blue"))))
'(whitespace-empty ((t (:background "black" :foreground "grey50")))))Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#74F-Droid website is awful for a curious visitor. Serves me a .apk with no further instructions. What am I supposed to do with that?
https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Get_F-Droid/
I think you're kind of right. I was surprised that that's two clicks away from the front page, under docs. That's where I'd look but it probably should have a nice visible link that's the first thing you see. There is a picture of the program running on an android device and a QR code.
Perfectly adequate for people who know how it all works or people who look for software install instructions on the regular, but not the best first contact for people who don't.
Edit: Actually, even the instructions page doesn't tell you to download and run the package on the device's browser. A user visiting on a laptop or something will just have a weird useless file in the downloads dir (unless they go the adb route or otherwise figure out it needs to go on the device first).
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#75There is a third option (in addition to the native app and Termux) to get emacs running. The recently added (to at least Pixel phones) "Terminal" app runs a standard Debian distribution inside a VM. emacs can be installed there in exactly the same way it would be on any other Debian machine.
I started reddit.com/r/androidterminal for discussing this feature
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point, though I don't always have my Bluetooth keyboard available so I'm still interested in hearing people's experiences with those virtual keyboard apps.
Yeah when I think of “emacs on android” I kinda imagine a touchscreen. If you’re using a real keyboard, why not just use a real computer?
Big difference in portability between a foldable keyboard and a full laptop.
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#77I've been using emacs in terminal mode inside termux for a few years and it's not bad. Full GUI emacs would be nice, I'll have to give this a try
It is already there and it works.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/android-ports-for-gnu-emacs...
There is a catch though, you need to download and install Termux & Emacs from this project as per the instructions. It took me a while to get it working, but after that it worked like a charm.
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to an Android device -- somehow everybody thinks you have to buy some special $300 keyboard to attach one to a tablet but the basic keyboard from Amazon Basics does just ifne.
Yes. USB also works just fine too.
How much current does it draw?
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#79Caveat: all this is on iOS: The only reason I want emacs on my phone is the one thing I don’t have: I want my org notes to be on both desktop and mobile. But syncing files across both has been dreadful, even in paid apps: duplicates everywhere and I constantly have to rechoose the files in a file finder UI. So my reminders are not just ever present for the time when they’re relevant, they’re just “not there” unless I…
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, although I'm a vim user (please don't hate me), visiting this thread to see if the emacs community has solved this. My use case is I want the vim analog to some emacs tooling like org-mode, everywhere. I want open formats, I want vimwiki-style linking, I want taskwarrior integration, and I also want it to synch on all my devices. There are some proprietary tools like Note…
Also thinking about this. Requirements I've identified -- and this is why people give up and just run Emacs on Android:
1. Able to natively edit and view same file type on both devices, be it .md or .org or whatever you choose (there are more apps supporting .md, if you can stomach that)
2. Links must work on both devices! That alone means it's not trivial, even if you have a lightbulb moment and use .md files for access to more apps, together with one of Emacs' filetype-independent links like Hyperbole or Denote, because no .md app will support those links. Conversely in .org, not all apps even support Org-ID links... especially not making it easy to insert such a link.
3. App must have satisfactory editing facilities. I know at least one app that doesn't even let you indent/dedent list bullets...
4. If you use TODO tasks, the app needs to make it convenient to see them at a glance across all files. Many Org apps fail here and either basically assume you have like one "todo.org" file and need no hand-holding, or even if they list all TODOs, there's no way to sort or filter, or it only lets you see them but not toggle them to DONE!
5. If you use a wiki-style workflow such as org-roam, so that you have far too many small files to keep track of, the app needs to make it easy to browse. Many apps fail here, just showing you a file list on the assumption that you even know what your files are named or what's in them. Count your blessings if there's at least a good search facility.
6. Instant & reliable sync. Logseq Sync is too buggy (at least it was in 2023). Things like Syncthing just aren't good enough if you don't also host a server that is always on. If sync conflicts are frequent, I'll be so wary of editing that I stop altogether.
Re: Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good
#80There is a third option (in addition to the native app and Termux) to get emacs running. The recently added (to at least Pixel phones) "Terminal" app runs a standard Debian distribution inside a VM. emacs can be installed there in exactly the same way it would be on any other Debian machine.
I started reddit.com/r/androidterminal for discussing this feature
I'm sure grateful that you did that. I've been surprised by how little online discussion of this app I've seen. It's just extremely cool to be walking around with a real gnu/linux computer in my pocket, which cost nothing to add to the phone, and has no ads or in app purchases.