Hacker News Reader

Comment by modernerd | Hacker News Reader

Wow, Eglot/Treesitter/better package support in 29 make me want to try Emacs again.

> Install packages from source with package.el

Emacs users updating to 29: do you plan to use this instead of Straight now? If not, can you help me to understand what more Straight provides?

Emacs on macOS users: do you generally compile new versions of Emacs from source, or wait for ports like Mitsuharu Yamamoto's one[1] to update?

[1] https://bitbucket.org/mituharu/emacs-mac/src/master/, used by https://github.com/railwaycat/homebrew-emacsmacport

View on HN

My preferred distribution for emacs on macos is: https://github.com/d12frosted/homebrew-emacs-plus

It's well documented and supported, I highly recommend it!

Thanks!! I hadn’t seen this, will try it today.

yeah, options for native compilations on/off, nice custom icons, comes with a `brew service`; very solid

+1 I’ve been using native comp (and other goodies) on M1 via emacs plus https://xenodium.com/emacs-plus-with-native-comp/

Just an fyi for people using straight or interested in it, its maintainer is working on an alternative called elpaca.

https://github.com/progfolio/elpaca

I've been driving elpaca for some weeks now and it is fairly usable. Very fast installs. Occasional jankiness (as is to be expected from alpha software)

I just started using Straight a few months ago, best improvement that I have experienced in 40 years of Emacs use. I will definitely try switching to built in support for package.el, as well as switch to eglot and other new built-in features. I prefer shorter Emacs config files.

I always grab dmg's from here: https://emacsformacosx.com/

This has been a reliable source, over the years. I love it.

I use the MacPorts build of Mitsuharu Yamamoto's port https://ports.macports.org/port/emacs-app/

Posted the wrong link. Here's the correct one. https://ports.macports.org/port/emacs-mac-app/details/

I’ve been using Mitsuharu’s port for years, always compiling it myself from his bitbucket repo. I am no longer sure how different it is from the vanilla GNU distribution. When I first started using emacs, long before the Mac port, the current version was 18.57, I think. It was a long wait for version 19 to appear, being the first version with proper X11 support. It amazes me to think of how much has happened since, and that emacs is as useful and relevant now as then.

I have been compiling from git head since they added jit compilation, as it is much faster. (On Linux and Mac). Sometimes I run into weirdness and repull and recompile. My version says 30 now, but if homebrew packages 29 I might switch back.

Just as one data point, I have never used straight.el, package.el as it exists in even Emacs 26 is sufficient for me for all my packages. I think this is true for the majority of Emacs users that use packages.

The railwaycat build is the only version of Emacs I've found to work with Magnet (https://magnet.crowdcafe.com).

Probably not re packaging. I like use-package and they’re talking about including use-package with emacs 30.

I use Nix on macOS to install emacs. No special ports.

straight.el feels more robust. For instance, I didn't experience any issues with stale .elc files or similar since switching to straight.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com