Commit bb04d7e349
Unsigned
Layout: unified · split
content/blog/2024-07-11-emacs-on-ipad.md +33 −24
| @@ -2,55 +2,64 @@ | |||
| 2 | date = 2024-07-11T20:24:02 | 2 | date = 2024-07-11T20:24:02 |
| 3 | title = "Emacs on iPadOS" | 3 | title = "Emacs on iPadOS" |
| 4 | description = "Learn how to install and use Emacs on the Apple Silicon iPad natively." | 4 | description = "Learn how to install and use Emacs on the Apple Silicon iPad natively." |
| 5 | draft = true | 5 | draft = false |
| 6 | +++ | 6 | +++ |
| 7 | 7 | ||
| 8 | This post describes the process to install and use Emacs on the iPad Air 13-inch | 8 | This post describes the process to install and use Emacs on the iPad Air 13-inch |
| 9 | (M2). The iPad used in this post is running iPadOS 17.6. | 9 | (M2). The iPad used in this post is running iPadOS 17.6. |
| 10 | 10 | ||
| 11 | ## Shell Application | 11 | ## Shell Application |
| 12 | 12 | ||
| 13 | In order to use Emacs on an iPad, you will need a terminal emulator application. | 13 | In order to use Emacs on an iPad, you will need a terminal emulator application. |
| 14 | I recommend [iSH](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243), since | 14 | I recommend [iSH](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243), since |
| 15 | it runs a version of Alpine Linux within the app itself and will allow you to | 15 | it runs a version of Alpine Linux within the app itself and will allow you to |
| 16 | install packages that you need. | 16 | install packages that you need. |
| 17 | 17 | ||
| 18 |  | 18 |  |
| 19 | 19 | ||
| 20 | ## Require Packages | 20 | ## Require Packages |
| 21 | 21 | ||
| 22 | I started by adding the required packages directly within iSH. Emacs should | 22 | I started by adding the required packages directly within iSH. Emacs should |
| 23 | install dependencies by default, but I include a few other packages that I use | 23 | install dependencies by default, but I include a few other packages that I use |
| 24 | in my terminal as well. | 24 | in my terminal as well. |
| 25 | 25 | ||
| 26 | ```sh | 26 | ```sh |
| 27 | apk add emacs ripgrep fd findutils | 27 | apk add emacs ripgrep fd findutils |
| 28 | ``` | 28 | ``` |
| 29 | 29 | ||
| 30 |  | 30 |  | ||
| 31 | 32 | ||
| 32 | ## Emacs | 33 | ## Emacs |
| 33 | 34 | ||
| 34 | Once this is complete, you should be able to run Emacs natively on your iPad. | 35 | Once this is complete, you should be able to run Emacs natively on your iPad. |
| 35 | It's fairly effective, but can be slow at times. | 36 | It's effective, but can be slow at times. |
| 36 | 37 | ||
| 37 | I attempted to also install Doom Emacs, which technically worked, but was so | 38 | I attempted to also install Doom Emacs, which technically worked, but was so |
| 38 | incredibly slow and buggy that I was not even able to take screenshots. Someone | 39 | incredibly slow and buggy that I was not even able to take screenshots. Someone |
| 39 | smarter than me could likely get it to work with a little tinkering. | 40 | smarter than me could likely get it to work with a little tinkering. |
| 40 | 41 | ||
| 41 |  | 42 |  |
| 42 | 43 | ||
| 43 | ### Annoyances | 44 | ### MELPA |
| 44 | 45 | ||
| 45 | While Emacs is running at this point, it's not perfect. There is no `.emacs` | 46 | You also have to remember to hook up MELPA yourself in the `.emacs` file to be |
| 46 | file by default, installing a framework like Doom seemed to be too much, and | 47 | able to search through their 5700+ packages instead of just ELPA packages. If |
| 47 | some utilities and packages are missing from the bare Alpine installation. | 48 | you don't, you will only have access to ELPA packages like the ones below. |
| 48 | 49 | ||
| 49 | There also seems to be a problem getting a wider selection of packages from | 50 |  |
| 50 | MELPA, but you can see below that a handful of readily-available packages. I | ||
| 51 | likely just need to change my configuration for MELPA, but I did not explore | ||
| 52 | this area further. | ||
| 53 | 51 | ||
| 54 | You can test this out yourself with `M-x package-install <search-termœ>`. | 52 | Once you have MELPA, you can install packages like the `dashboard` package shown |
| 53 | below. | ||
| 55 | 54 | ||
| 56 |  | 55 |  |
| 56 | |||
| 57 | ### Speed | ||
| 58 | |||
| 59 | While Emacs will run on my iPad, it's not perfect. The largest issue on my | ||
| 60 | iPad is speed - loading Emacs takes 6-7 seconds and installing the `magit` | ||
| 61 | package took 129 seconds. | ||
| 62 | |||
| 63 | I haven't played around enough to optimize loading times and poke around to see | ||
| 64 | why the network requests take so long, but it's a big enough issue that I | ||
| 65 | wouldn't see casual Emacs users dealing with the lag. | ||