don't know what emacs package to install

ernesto_cgf · 05-08-2008, 04:15 PM

I list all emacs packages in ubuntu hardy 8.04 and I get the following:

Code:

emacs                      emacsen-common
emacs19                    emacs-extra
emacs20                    emacs-goodies-el
emacs21                    emacs-goodies-extra-el
emacs21-bin-common         emacs-intl-fonts
emacs21-common             emacs-jabber
emacs21-common-non-dfsg    emacs-lisp-intro
emacs21-el                 emacspeak
emacs21-nox                emacspeak-bs-tcl
emacs22                    emacspeak-dt
emacs22-bin-common         emacspeak-dt-tcl
emacs22-common             emacspeak-ss
emacs22-common-non-dfsg    emacs-snapshot
emacs22-el                 emacs-snapshot-bin-common
emacs22-gtk                emacs-snapshot-common
emacs22-nox                emacs-snapshot-el
emacs-chess                emacs-snapshot-gtk
emacs-chess-pieces         emacs-snapshot-nonx
emacs-dl-wnn               emacs-snapshot-nox
emacsen                    emacs-wiki

I know not all of these are emacs installations but complements, but for instance, what should I install: emacs19, emacs20, emacs21 or emacs22? emacs-snapshot maybe? or emacs-snapshot-gtk? what's the difference between all these packages? what's the supposed or expected way to install emacs in ubuntu?

jailbait · 05-08-2008, 04:33 PM

You can get longer descriptions of what each package does using synaptic. Start synaptic and then click on the package name you are interested in and synaptic will show a two or three sentence description of the package.

You can mark a package for installation by clicking on the box to the left of the package name. If a selected package requires dependency packages then the dependencies will be included in the list of packages to be installed. When you have selected the packages you want click on apply. Then click on "to be installed" to double check what you have selected. If satisfactory then click on apply to install the packages.

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Steve Stites

P.S. I suggest that you start out by selecting emacs and then looking at what dependencies come with emacs. Then you can look at the optional package descriptions and select the ones that look interesting.

adr689 · 12-08-2008, 04:43 AM

I started using emacs a month ago. It's great.

Emacs isn't only a text editor, but it's a powerful desktop manager in text mode with graphics support in X. If you don't know what version of emacs install, let my tell you my experience. I've tried all versions of emacs, and the best for me is emacs-snapshot. Why? because I listen music within emacs, I write music with lilypond within emacs, I surf internet with w3m within emacs, I browse files within emacs, I program in several programming languages within emacs, I process text for Tex, LaTex within emacs, I use a console emulator within emacs, I read and send mail within emacs, I view ps and pdf within emacs, I read the man and info pages within emacs, I install packages within emacs, I query dictionaries within ... well... sorry, I could not stop ... it is a joke to make you realize everything you can do without leave emacs. And spend much time in front of the screen without antialiased fonts is deadly... Emacs-snapshot (Xft Gnu Emacs) is the only one that I know of that supports antialiased fonts in X. Go to www.emacswiki.org/emacs/XftGnuEmacs to take a look.

So I recommend you install emacs-snapshot. The package emacs-snapshot-nox is a version without support for X, and the package emacs-snapshot-gtk is a empty package to facilitate upgrades (all emacs with X support work with gtk). Once you are familiar with the emacs environment (motion, killing and deleting, search, work with files, buffers, windows, commands..) then you can take a look at www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SiteMap to see what complements are useful for you. A little example:

emms: the emacs multimedia system.
gnuplot-mode: a Gnuplot mode for emacs.
midge: generates MIDI files from text input. Included is a emacs mode.
mpg123-el: an emacs front-end to mpg123 audio player.
timidity-el: an emacs front-end to timidity to play midi and mod files.
w3m-el-snapshot: an interface program of w3m, a pager with WWW capability. It can be used as a lightweight WWW browser on emacs.

And with package: simple package system for GNU Emacs, you can install complements and modes within emacs. However emacs-snapshot include a lot of extensions.

I hope that this long long long commentary encourage you to install and discover emacs. This takes time and patience, but believe me, it's worth.

PD: I don't speak english very well... sorry.