Re: Android port of Emacs

[Óscar Fuentes]

Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com> writes:

> Óscar Fuentes <ofv@wanadoo.es> writes:
>
>> Building those binaries (and its dependencies) can be quite a chore. So
>> let's reverse the relation: can your port be built (toggling some
>> configure options, for instance) so it can be packaged as a regular
>> Termux binary? Which means that when executed from Termux the user would
>> have a "native" Android Emacs with access to all those external binaries
>> distributed by Termux.
>
> No, but it can (right now) be packaged with the "shared user ID" set to
> that of Termux.  When installed along side a Termux build signed with
> the same package signing key as Emacs, Emacs will be able to access
> executable files installed by Termux.

If I understand correctly, this means that you can't start Emacs from
Termux, but a specially-built Emacs could be launched as any other
Android app and then it could invoke Termux applications. Isn't the
"installed alongside Termux" part a bit complicated? I mean, if it is
not possible for Termux to build, package and install your port
alongside their other packages, how the user could do that?

> BTW, it is quite simple to build Termux packages: changing some
> environment variables and running `build-bootstrap.sh' is sufficient to
> generate the bootstrap archive, and dpkg can then be used to install the
> rest.

How is that different from Termux themselves building and distributing
your port?

OTOH, I know from experience that creating, hosting and maintaining a
software distribution (and that would be what you are describing, IIUC)
is quite a lot of work, even when the number of packages is small-ish
(about 50-100 in my case, counting dependencies.) So having a
"hands-off" method for installing Emacs along with other software
packages is crucial for gaining a broad adoption.

> Hope that helped.

I'm progressing on my understanding, thank you.