Re: Android port of Emacs

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 02/07/2023 18:45, Spencer Baugh wrote:

>     It might be handy to have an Emacs-specific keyboard, with whole
>     sequences (such as M-x/C-x/C-c/C-h) assigned to single buttons.
>
>
> It seems to me that toolbar would be the place for such things, rather 
> than something platform specific.
>
> Actually we could even have toolbar buttons for 
> event-apply-control-modifier and so on. Then a normal keyboard could 
> work very well.
>
> Although moving the toolbar to the bottom of the screen on Android (as I 
> saw some feature mentioned) would help with that. And increasing the 
> size of the icons...

Yep, you've just described platform-specific UI details. How the Android 
port implements that (natively in Java or with Lisp using the standard 
toolbar) is secondary, but adapting to the specific form-factor (and the 
proximity to the on-screen keyboard) has its benefits.

Eli mentioned JuiceSSH (which for some reason doesn't install on my 
phone, listing itself as "not available") and it has this on the 
screenshots: 
https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/1rhvZxZHx_IraiVLzqjYHwM1M3lm_HRsTCd_S4VSyEqzr-uNqThx63MtSdrgpDEJBos=w5120-h2880. 
IOW, a bunch of special keys that usually have Emacs bindings but are 
absent on the standard on-screen keyboards.

Here's also a screenshot of Termius: 
https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/XUYZvSuW9FH9WbwHuZVkhgb5f1Qgx-2WZy_fkQJhziiiA7PS0yw7rywz2vm0RlQCLwSN=w5120-h2880

It also provides easier access to some of those buttons. I haven't 
installed either yet, so not sure how they are implemented (keyboard 
hints or not), maybe also rendered in-app.