GNU Emacs ported to Android

GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Karl Voit]

Hi!

I just stumbled upon
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zielm.emacs&hl=en

It is still in an early phase but still I am dreaming of having
Org-mode on my XOOM tablet ... :-)

HW/SW-keyboard is still an issue here IMHO. The Ctrl/ESC keys of my
freedom pro HW-Bluetooth-keyboard does not seem to work on Android
:-( I tried it for using mutt/slrn over ConnectBot/ssh ...

Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
Android?

-- 
Karl Voit

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Ian Barton]

On 21/08/12 16:22, Karl Voit wrote:

> I just stumbled upon
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zielm.emacs&hl=en
>
> It is still in an early phase but still I am dreaming of having
> Org-mode on my XOOM tablet ... :-)
>
> HW/SW-keyboard is still an issue here IMHO. The Ctrl/ESC keys of my
> freedom pro HW-Bluetooth-keyboard does not seem to work on Android
> :-( I tried it for using mutt/slrn over ConnectBot/ssh ...
>
> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
> Android?
>
Thanks for the heads up. Off to play. The android Hackers Keyboard has 
Ctrl, Alt, etc. I use it to run Emacs via a terminal. However, a 
hardware keyboard that worked would be great.

Ian.

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Bastien]

Hi Karl,

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:

> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
> Android?

sorry to act like a police officer, but please keep those discussions
where they belong to -- either some Android or Emacs list.  You will
probably have more answers on help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 

Thanks for your understanding!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

['Mash (Thomas Herbert)]

On 2012-08-21 18:42+0100, Ian Barton wrote:
> On 21/08/12 16:22, Karl Voit wrote:
>
> >I just stumbled upon
> >https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zielm.emacs&hl=en
> >
> >It is still in an early phase but still I am dreaming of having
> >Org-mode on my XOOM tablet ... :-)
> >
> >HW/SW-keyboard is still an issue here IMHO. The Ctrl/ESC keys of my
> >freedom pro HW-Bluetooth-keyboard does not seem to work on Android
> >:-( I tried it for using mutt/slrn over ConnectBot/ssh ...
> >
> >Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
> >Android?
> >
> Thanks for the heads up. Off to play. The android Hackers Keyboard
> has Ctrl, Alt, etc. I use it to run Emacs via a terminal. However, a
> hardware keyboard that worked would be great.
>
> Ian.
>

Tempted to get one of these at some point.
http://www.freedominput.com/freedom-accessories/freedom-pro-keyboard

'Mash

Org-mode on Android (was: GNU Emacs ported to Android)

[Karl Voit]

* 'Mash (Thomas Herbert) <mashdot@toshine.net> wrote:
>
> Tempted to get one of these at some point.
> http://www.freedominput.com/freedom-accessories/freedom-pro-keyboard

Got one of those. Esc, Ctrl, ... are not usable with Android up to
4.1.1  :-(

The thing is that I do think that MobileOrg is a great workaround,
but still a workaround. Native Emacs running on an Android device
would be cool to be able to use all features of Org-mode. This would
stop the lag behind development of any mobile app such as MobileOrg.

But there is a looong way to go before Org-mode on Android is a
viable solution IMHO.

-- 
Karl Voit

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Allen S. Rout]

On 08/22/2012 04:17 AM, 'Mash (Thomas Herbert) wrote:
> On 2012-08-21 18:42+0100, Ian Barton wrote:
>> On 21/08/12 16:22, Karl Voit wrote:
>>
>>> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
>>> Android?
>>>
>> Thanks for the heads up. Off to play. The android Hackers Keyboard
>> has Ctrl, Alt, etc. I use it to run Emacs via a terminal. However, a
>> hardware keyboard that worked would be great.
>>
>> Ian.
>>
>
> Tempted to get one of these at some point.
> http://www.freedominput.com/freedom-accessories/freedom-pro-keyboard


I own it.  It doesn't work, at least 2.2.1 on my MyTouch 4G (and my G1, 
but...)

The problem is not with the hardware per se;  the keyboard driver in 
_android_ (not at the bluetooth layer) specifically omitted the key 
modifier concept, so ctrl, M-, alt just don't happen.

I've been hoping that the Android-as-USB-host stuff announced at the 
last IO would unscrew that problem, but haven't followed its progress much.

- Allen S. Rout

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Jason F. McBrayer]

On 22.08.2012 08:53, Allen S. Rout wrote:

> The problem is not with the hardware per se; the keyboard driver in
> _android_ (not at the bluetooth layer) specifically omitted the key
> modifier concept, so ctrl, M-, alt just don't happen.

Weird. Is that driver issue only relevant to hardware keyboards?
Because ctrl and alt both work fine in Hacker's Keyboard. Does which
soft keyboard you have active affect the behaviour of the hardware
keyboard?

http://source.android.com/tech/input/keyboard-devices.html mentions
Android key codes for left and right versions of control, alt, shift
and meta.

I admit to knowing very little about this, and would like to learn
more.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer jmcbray@carcosa.net |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors. --- The Dhammapada |

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Torsten Wagner]

Hi Bastien,

I guess many many people here are looking since a long time how to run
a full version of org-mode on a mobile device.
Thus, I believe the announcement itself was well placed.
If we can keep the discussion towards how org-mode on an android
version of emacs works out, I guess we are save for any police raids,
right? ;)
E.g. if this is getting a little bigger, it might be interesting to
discuss a mobile-minor mode in org-mode which maps certain features to
easier to enter keyboard shortcuts.
Maybe someone can even thing of a specific emacs org-mode
soft-keyboard which maps the most used functions to individual keys
directly (not sure if this is possible)

Torsten

On 22 August 2012 02:43, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
> Hi Karl,
>
> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>
>> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
>> Android?
>
> sorry to act like a police officer, but please keep those discussions
> where they belong to -- either some Android or Emacs list.  You will
> probably have more answers on help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>
> Thanks for your understanding!
>
> --
>  Bastien
>

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Carsten Dominik]

On 23.8.2012, at 03:00, Torsten Wagner wrote:

> Hi Bastien,
> 
> I guess many many people here are looking since a long time how to run
> a full version of org-mode on a mobile device.
> Thus, I believe the announcement itself was well placed.
> If we can keep the discussion towards how org-mode on an android
> version of emacs works out, I guess we are save for any police raids,
> right? ;)
> E.g. if this is getting a little bigger, it might be interesting to
> discuss a mobile-minor mode in org-mode which maps certain features to
> easier to enter keyboard shortcuts.
> Maybe someone can even thing of a specific emacs org-mode
> soft-keyboard which maps the most used functions to individual keys
> directly (not sure if this is possible)


I think speed keys http://orgmode.org/manual/Speed-keys.html#Speed-keys
will already go a long way to make Org-mode usable on an Emacs with
no or limited modifier support.  So your minor mode could largely be
an expansion of the speed key setup.

- Carsten

> 
> Torsten
> 
> On 22 August 2012 02:43, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
>> Hi Karl,
>> 
>> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>> 
>>> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
>>> Android?
>> 
>> sorry to act like a police officer, but please keep those discussions
>> where they belong to -- either some Android or Emacs list.  You will
>> probably have more answers on help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>> 
>> Thanks for your understanding!
>> 
>> --
>> Bastien
>> 
> 

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Bastien]

Hi Torsten,

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:

> I think speed keys http://orgmode.org/manual/Speed-keys.html#Speed-keys
> will already go a long way to make Org-mode usable on an Emacs with
> no or limited modifier support.  So your minor mode could largely be
> an expansion of the speed key setup.

Yes.  

This and org-mouse.el, which can be useful for touch interactions with
the buffer.  I'm not using org-mouse.el that much though, so if anyone
wants to test and report what needs to be enhanced there, please do so.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Torsten Wagner]

Hi Carsten,

great!
Once more org-mode has already a solution for a not yet existing problem ;)
I am not aware of any (non programming language) software project
which is more flexible and foreseeing then org-mode.

Torsten




On 23 August 2012 13:59, Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 23.8.2012, at 03:00, Torsten Wagner wrote:
>
>> Hi Bastien,
>>
>> I guess many many people here are looking since a long time how to run
>> a full version of org-mode on a mobile device.
>> Thus, I believe the announcement itself was well placed.
>> If we can keep the discussion towards how org-mode on an android
>> version of emacs works out, I guess we are save for any police raids,
>> right? ;)
>> E.g. if this is getting a little bigger, it might be interesting to
>> discuss a mobile-minor mode in org-mode which maps certain features to
>> easier to enter keyboard shortcuts.
>> Maybe someone can even thing of a specific emacs org-mode
>> soft-keyboard which maps the most used functions to individual keys
>> directly (not sure if this is possible)
>
>
> I think speed keys http://orgmode.org/manual/Speed-keys.html#Speed-keys
> will already go a long way to make Org-mode usable on an Emacs with
> no or limited modifier support.  So your minor mode could largely be
> an expansion of the speed key setup.
>
> - Carsten
>
>>
>> Torsten
>>
>> On 22 August 2012 02:43, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Karl,
>>>
>>> Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
>>>
>>>> Anybody else sharing experiences with Emacs or HW-keyboards on
>>>> Android?
>>>
>>> sorry to act like a police officer, but please keep those discussions
>>> where they belong to -- either some Android or Emacs list.  You will
>>> probably have more answers on help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>>>
>>> Thanks for your understanding!
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bastien
>>>
>>
>

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Carsten Dominik]

On 23 aug. 2012, at 08:04, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:

> Hi Torsten,
> 
> Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> I think speed keys http://orgmode.org/manual/Speed-keys.html#Speed-keys
>> will already go a long way to make Org-mode usable on an Emacs with
>> no or limited modifier support.  So your minor mode could largely be
>> an expansion of the speed key setup.
> 
> Yes.  
> 
> This and org-mouse.el, which can be useful for touch interactions with
> the buffer.

Ah yes, indeed.  Maybe long tap could be used to trigger the
actions defined by org-mouse.el.

>  I'm not using org-mouse.el that much though, so if anyone
> wants to test and report what needs to be enhanced there, please do so.
> 
> -- 
> Bastien

- Carsten

Re: GNU Emacs ported to Android

[Jason F. McBrayer]

On 23.08.2012 00:59, Carsten Dominik wrote:

> I think speed keys
> http://orgmode.org/manual/Speed-keys.html#Speed-keyswill already go a
> long way to make Org-mode usable on an Emacs with no or limited
> modifier support. So your minor mode could largely be an expansion of
> the speed key setup.

I've run emacs a little bit in a Fedora-ARM chroot on my Android 
tablet,
and speed keys were definitely my primary means of interacting with
it. The modifier support was not *that* limited -- running it in a 
local
ConnectBot session and using Hacker's Keyboard is as-far-as-I-can-tell
equivalent to a normal TTY Emacs with a PC keyboard. But, of course, 
the
modifier support in a normal TTY Emacs is a little limited.

My notes on running Emacs and Org-mode in this environment are at
http://www.carcosa.net/jason/blog/computing/emacs/2012-07-19-21-31-emacs-on-android.html
if anyone is interested. The setup bits are a bit obsolete given the 
new
native app that's out, but the native app basically wraps a terminal 
app
around an ARM-linux emacs, so a lot of things still apply.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Jason F. McBrayer jmcbray@carcosa.net |
| If someone conquers a thousand times a thousand others in |
| battle, and someone else conquers himself, the latter one |
| is the greatest of all conquerors. --- The Dhammapada |