ANN: Emacs.app initial release (9.0-pre1)

[Adrian Robert]

Hi all,

I've made the first release of "Emacs.app", the GNUstep / OS X port of 
emacs once known as "Emacs on Aqua" updated to the latest GNU Emacs 
CVS, unicode-2 branch.  Relative to Emacs on Aqua, this port supports 
proportional fonts, images, and all the latest lisp packages.

http://emacs-app.sf.net/

This is a developer, source-only release.  It is stable, but some 
functionality (toolbars, tooltips) remains to be implemented, and 
non-ascii text rendering and keyboard handling need work.

In addition, on GNUstep, exec image dumping is not working, which means 
startup time is very slow.  I welcome any help people are willing to 
offer on fixing this and improving the build process on Linux, *BSD, 
and any other system someone wants to work on.  Note that gnustep-make 
is not currently used because Emacs has a complex build process and 
Makefiles of its own, but it may be possible to invoke it as a 
sub-task.  Also, this port is only working right now using the Art 
back-end.  Xlib crashes on startup, and I haven't been able to track it 
down yet.  I've been using the latest CVS, but as far as I know the 
last couple of Startup releases should work.

Note that the unicode-2 branch of emacs uses unicode internally and is 
frequently sync'ed with the CVS Head which is going to be released soon 
as Emacs 22.  However it is currently designated for the next, Emacs 23 
release cycle, probably late 2006.  It would be trivial to port 
Emacs.app to Emacs 22 as well, however non-ascii rendering would not 
work, or require some code that I used in Emacs on Aqua that may not be 
easy to get into the GNU mainline due to the necessity of a copyright 
assignment.  (Emacs.app should be able to be accepted on the unicode-2 
branch however.)

Anyway, if you try it (with Art) and it works or doesn't work, feel 
free to let me know directly, but note there is also a mailing list, 
emacs-app-dev-@lists.sourceforge.net, managed through the SourceForge 
site, for developer discussion.

enjoy,
Adrian