Re: [h-e-w] Gnu Emacs

[Carson Chittom]

John DeRuntz <address@hidden> writes:

> So I would like to install emacs on a new Dell XPS laptop with a
> Windows 7 OS. Looking at the available files on your website I have no
> idea as to what I should download for my new machine. Also, will I
> need a unix emulator or will I be able to use emacs directly with MS
> Windows?

You have (at least) three options, all of which have pros and cons:

    1. Use a Windows-native Emacs[1]. This is likely your best bet,
       since it's officially supported by the Emacs people.  Be aware
       though that a few things don't work quite right (for example,
       interfacing with OpenSSL and/or GnuTLS to read email through Gnus
       or VM (or whatever)), and the Emacs defaults don't always accord
       with the Windows ones (for example, a user's home directory for
       Win7 is C:\Users\username; but ~ for Emacs is
       C:\Users\username\AppData)

    2. Use the Emacs from Cygwin[2].  This is what I think you mean by
       "unix emulator," although I think Cygwin is not actually an
       "emulator."  The last time I used Cygwin, it worked very well,
       but of course, it's an entirely separate layer on top of
       Windows, with all that entails.

    3. If you have Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate, you can enable the
       Subsystem for Unix-based Applications (SUA), download and install
       the SUA Utilities and SDK[3], and then install the tools from the
       SUA Community[4], one of which is Emacs.  SUA is antiquated,
       finicky, and non-obvious (it was to me, anyway), and the SUA
       Community's Emacs is only version 21.  However, SUA is an
       officially-supported Microsoft product, and I'm told there's lots
       of documentation on how to integrate the Unix and Windows pieces.

Sorry for the length; I've just thought about this a lot lately trying
to get my home computer set up the way I want (and eventually decided
that it was all too much effort and installed OpenBSD, where things Just
Work the way I expect them to).


[1] http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows
[2] http://www.cygwin.com
[3] http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2391
[4] http://www.suacommunity.com