Emacs is my editor of choice and has been for over 30 years. Emacs is free software provided by the Gnu project for many different computers and operating systems.

On the Mac, I use  Aquamacs Emacs, derived from Emacs 23 and adapted for the Mac by David Reitter. Aquamacs works like a regular Emacs (mostly) and adds some nice integration with the Macintosh environment. See  http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsForMacOS for more info.

I use my Mac for programming in Java, SQL, Perl, shell, C and C++, as well as web page developmemt in HTML and Javascript.

Aquamacs features

Aquamacs provides several useful improvements over the emacs 22.1 included in OSX 10.6. (The most recent Gnu version is 23.2.)

• Based on Emacs 23 and Cocoa.
• Adds consistent use of the Mac command key sequences like cmd-C, cmd-X, cmd-V, cmd-S, cmd-W.
• Integration with the Mac clipboard.
• Support for the Option key as the Emacs Meta key, and a sensible method of using the Mac option key when special characters are being input (cmd-;).
• Good looking tabbed interface with a tab per buffer.
• Integration with the Mac system spelling dictionary.

Tailoring Aquamacs

Aquamacs made several choices that I don't like, so some of my tailoring below reverts Aquamacs defaults to more traditional Emacs behavior. My personal Emacs tailorings are influenced by the habits of many years, and the desire to use similar Emacs key sequences on different platforms. This note describes how I set up my personal preferences for Aquamacs 2.1.

1. Use my .emacs file from Unix, containing function key bindings (some as old as the 1980s) and macros.

2. Get rid of toolbar (Why: consistency with other Emacsen, waste of space, never use it).

   • Click on the small oval in the top right corner of the titlebar area.
   • Select Options ► Appearance ► Adopt Face and Frame Parameters as Frame Default.
   • Select Options ► Save Options.

3. Use a monospaced font everywhere (CWOE).

   • Turn off aquamacs-autoface-mode by unchecking Options ► Appearance ► Auto Faces ► Auto Faces.
   • Select Options ► Save options.
   • Select Options ► Appearance ► Font
   • Select Menlo 12 (for Snow Leopard, otherwise use Monaco)
   • Select Options ► Appearance ► Adopt Face and Frame Parameters as Frame Default
   • Select Options ► Save options.
   • Type esc-x. Cursor will jump down to the minibuffer.
   • Select Options ► Appearance ► Font
   • Select Menlo 12
   • Select Options ► Appearance ► Adopt Face and Frame Parameters as Frame Default
   • Select Options ► Save options.

4. Line wrapping (CWOE).

   • Select Options ► Line Wrapping ► wrap.
   • Select Options ► Line Wrapping ► Adopt as default.
   • Select Options ► Save options.

5. Enable nice Aquamacs features.

   • Select Options ► Show Tabs (tab bar with buffer names, cmd-W closes a buffer)
   • Select Options ► Save options.
   • Select Tools ► Install Command Line Tools and do it. ("aquamacs" command)

6. Disable gratuitous Aquamacs changes (CWOE, predictable behavior).

   • Select Options ► Customize Aquamacs ► Aquamacs-specific options ► Save Place and turn OFF
   • Save for future sessions.
   • to use HTML mode not HTML helper mode, add to .emacs

     (setq magic-mode-alist nil)

     Magic mode peeks at the file contents and chooses an HTML or XML mode in some cases. I don't need it.
   • To indent C and Perl by 4 spaces, add to .emacs

     (add-hook 'cperl-mode-hook (lambda () (cperl-set-style "BSD")))

   • Select Options ► Customize Aquamacs ► Aquamacs-specific options ► Visible Bell and turn ON (eliminate noise, others share space with me)
   • Select Options ► Customize Aquamacs ► Aquamacs-specific options ► Line Move Visual and turn OFF (predictable effect for ^N)

7. My personal preferences

   • Select Options ► View ► Paren Match (Editing assist)
   • Select Options ► View ► Size indication (Editing assist)
   • Select Options ► View ► Column numbers (Editing assist)
   • Select Options ► Save options.
   • add to .emacs [could customize Aquamacs] (helps multi-tasking)

     (setq frame-title-format '("%f"))

   • add to .emacs

     (require 'uniquify)

     .. and then customize uniquify-buffer-name-style to "forward" (helps multi-tasking).
   • Set personal environment variable VEDITOR to run /Applications/Aquamacs.app (helps with my macros)

8. Change file associations to Aquamacs.app for .e .html .htmx .htmi .htmt .htmy .txt .cgi .pl .java .js .txt .tpt .sh .sql etc (OSX integration)