But if you are seriously interested in the Windows-like modification of Emacs, there is another alternative to consider: Emacs W32.Įmacs W32 is a Windows-centric distribution of Emacs. I used plain old vanilla Emacs on Windows for years with no complaints whatsoever. el (ELisp) file to change your preferences. Others, like remapping Windows key bindings to Emacs commands like cut-and-paste, require you to download an add-on. Some behavioral changes - like automatically deleting selected text when you type over it - are already built in to Emacs, though they are disabled by default. The official Emacs FAQ contains a section on modifying Emacs so that it behaves more like a traditional Windows app. But when you have to switch back and forth between the Unix-like Emacs and typical Windows apps, the differences can begin to wear on you.

When you are working on a Unix-like system day-in and day-out, the Emacs key bindings become second nature. Of course, any user who craves Windows-like behavior when using Emacs will have more to contend with than just the installer. For those who consider this process lacking in glamour, recent Windows builds have added another binary named addpm.exe that functions more like a typical Win32 installer, including niceties such as adding Start menu shortcuts. If there isn’t, the original runemacs.exe is in the bin folder. You launch Emacs by executing runemacs.exe, to which there should be a shortcut in the top level of the archive. But when you have unpacked the archive, don’t expect to find a GUI InstallShield wizard - the un-tarred package is ready to run.

Most compression utilities for Windows can handle both tar and gz, so it is nothing to worry about. zip file like so many other Windows applications. Before you even begin to download it, you will notice that this version of Emacs is very Unix-like: the package is a. You can download Windows binaries from the official GNU project Web site. The standard GNU Emacs builds on all recent flavors of Windows - NT, XP, 2000, ME, even 98 and 95. Let’s take a look at the options, and decide how to pick the best non-Unix Emacs for our daily work routine. Fortunately, the world’s best editor is available on all of them - though as is sometimes the case with free software, there are several competing versions, with their own pros and cons.

As much as we love Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, we are sometimes forced to work on others - Windows, perhaps, or Mac OS X.

Aquamacs alter