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diff --git a/content/blog/2024-07-11-emacs-on-ipad.md b/content/blog/2024-07-11-emacs-on-ipad.md index d15ed12..d0d2dec 100644 --- a/content/blog/2024-07-11-emacs-on-ipad.md +++ b/content/blog/2024-07-11-emacs-on-ipad.md @@ -2,55 +2,64 @@ date = 2024-07-11T20:24:02 title = "Emacs on iPadOS" description = "Learn how to install and use Emacs on the Apple Silicon iPad natively." -draft = true +draft = false +++ -This post describes the process to install and use Emacs on the iPad Air 13-inch +This post describes the process to install and use Emacs on the iPad Air 13-inch (M2). The iPad used in this post is running iPadOS 17.6. ## Shell Application -In order to use Emacs on an iPad, you will need a terminal emulator application. -I recommend [iSH](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243), since -it runs a version of Alpine Linux within the app itself and will allow you to +In order to use Emacs on an iPad, you will need a terminal emulator application. +I recommend [iSH](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243), since +it runs a version of Alpine Linux within the app itself and will allow you to install packages that you need. - + ## Require Packages -I started by adding the required packages directly within iSH. Emacs should -install dependencies by default, but I include a few other packages that I use +I started by adding the required packages directly within iSH. Emacs should +install dependencies by default, but I include a few other packages that I use in my terminal as well. ```sh apk add emacs ripgrep fd findutils ``` - + ## Emacs -Once this is complete, you should be able to run Emacs natively on your iPad. -It's fairly effective, but can be slow at times. +Once this is complete, you should be able to run Emacs natively on your iPad. +It's effective, but can be slow at times. -I attempted to also install Doom Emacs, which technically worked, but was so -incredibly slow and buggy that I was not even able to take screenshots. Someone +I attempted to also install Doom Emacs, which technically worked, but was so +incredibly slow and buggy that I was not even able to take screenshots. Someone smarter than me could likely get it to work with a little tinkering. - + -### Annoyances +### MELPA -While Emacs is running at this point, it's not perfect. There is no `.emacs` -file by default, installing a framework like Doom seemed to be too much, and -some utilities and packages are missing from the bare Alpine installation. +You also have to remember to hook up MELPA yourself in the `.emacs` file to be +able to search through their 5700+ packages instead of just ELPA packages. If +you don't, you will only have access to ELPA packages like the ones below. -There also seems to be a problem getting a wider selection of packages from -MELPA, but you can see below that a handful of readily-available packages. I -likely just need to change my configuration for MELPA, but I did not explore -this area further. + -You can test this out yourself with `M-x package-install <search-termœ>`. +Once you have MELPA, you can install packages like the `dashboard` package shown +below. - + + +### Speed + +While Emacs will run on my iPad, it's not perfect. The largest issue on my +iPad is speed - loading Emacs takes 6-7 seconds and installing the `magit` +package took 129 seconds. + +I haven't played around enough to optimize loading times and poke around to see +why the network requests take so long, but it's a big enough issue that I +wouldn't see casual Emacs users dealing with the lag. |