Emacs24 Mobile (was: Re: just-the-text Emacs frame (was: Emacs as a desktop environment))

[Mohsen BANAN]

>>>>> On Sat, 28 May 2011 12:49:59 -0500, Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden> said:

  Ted> Let me know what you think.  It supports any number of status buffers by
  Ted> name and behaves correctly even if the frame is closed.

  Ted> Thanks!

I tried your code. 

It worked great for me. Thanks.

I think the concept of Emacs as a desktop
environment is very powerful and you are on the
right track. 

Let me suggest a particular environment where what
you are proposing has immense potential. 

Emacs as the desktop on Handsets/Mobile Phones.

Please permit me to set the stage first.

For about 3 years now I have been using emacs on 
a Nokia 810 and more recently on Nokia 900.

Nokia 810's native OS was called Maemo. It is a
debian dertivative (not totally Halaal(حلال)/free).
The Windows Manager+Desktop is Hildon (Gnome's
desktop for handheld devices).

Naturally I have put emacs on it and have been using
the handset exclusively from within emacs. My main
usages are:

 - Personal Information Management (org-mode, bbdb, calendar, ...)
 - Interpersonal Communications (Gnus, ...)
 - Music/Media Playing (EMMS + mplayer)
 - Garage door opener (APC9211 + snmp + a relay, ...)

All of that I have been using with various emacs
drop down menus. 

The current emacs user interface does not work well
with the finger's touch. I have been living with it
but ...

With that preface and the direction that you are
going, let's consider the following.

  - On a bare handset, we start with a debian
    GNU/Linux without any GUI.

  - We add X and a windows manager (no desktop).

  - We add Emacs as a desktop.

  - We add a new touch oriented emacs menu system.

This last piece of a "touch oriented emacs menu
system" is what I am proposing you consider adding
to your popup-info code. Let's call it popup-menu.

For example: 

a popup-info frame is customized to fit the
handset's full screen. Then the frame is broken
into a say 3x6 grid of buttons forming a set of
nested menus.

For now we can assume that there is no gesture in
place and drive it all with popup frames and 
touch oriented menus (popup-menus).

In emacs we already have richer apps than iPhone,
Android and WindowsMobile7 combined.

So, it really is just a matter of rethinking the
menu interface and desktop behavior on touch
oriented small screens. 

Your thoughts?

...Mohsen