emacs-application-framework

EAF, an extensible framework that revolutionizes the graphical capabilities of Emacs

3,111

234

3,111

View on GitHub

Top Related Projects

lsp-bridge

1,480

A blazingly fast LSP client for Emacs

lsp-mode

4,828

Emacs client/library for the Language Server Protocol

Quick Overview

The Emacs Application Framework (EAF) is a powerful and extensible framework for building applications within the Emacs text editor. It provides a set of tools and APIs that allow developers to create custom applications and integrate them seamlessly into the Emacs ecosystem.

Pros

Extensibility: EAF allows developers to create a wide range of applications, from web browsers and media players to code editors and task managers, all within the Emacs environment.
Integration: EAF applications are tightly integrated with Emacs, allowing for seamless interaction and data exchange between the applications and the editor.
Cross-platform: EAF is designed to be cross-platform, with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Active Development: The EAF project is actively maintained and developed, with regular updates and improvements.

Cons

Learning Curve: Developing applications for EAF may require a certain level of familiarity with Emacs and its ecosystem, which can be a barrier for some developers.
Dependency on Emacs: EAF is tightly coupled with Emacs, which means that users must have Emacs installed to use the applications built with EAF.
Limited Adoption: While EAF is a powerful framework, it may not have the same level of adoption and community support as some other Emacs packages or external applications.
Performance: Depending on the complexity of the application, EAF applications may not perform as well as native applications or those built with other frameworks.

Code Examples

Here are a few examples of how to use the EAF framework:

Creating a Simple Browser:

from eaf.browser import Browser

browser = Browser()
browser.open_url("https://www.example.com")

This code creates a simple web browser application using the Browser class provided by EAF.

Integrating a Media Player:

from eaf.media_player import MediaPlayer

player = MediaPlayer()
player.open_file("/path/to/your/media/file.mp3")
player.play()

This code creates a media player application that can play audio and video files.

Implementing a Code Editor:

from eaf.code_editor import CodeEditor

editor = CodeEditor()
editor.open_file("/path/to/your/code/file.py")
editor.set_language("python")
editor.save_file()

This code creates a code editor application that can open, edit, and save code files, with support for syntax highlighting and other programming-related features.

Getting Started

To get started with the Emacs Application Framework (EAF), follow these steps:

Install Emacs on your system. EAF is designed to work with Emacs, so you'll need to have it installed.

Clone the EAF repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/emacs-eaf/emacs-application-framework.git

Add the EAF directory to your Emacs load path by adding the following line to your Emacs configuration file (e.g., ~/.emacs.d/init.el):
```
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/path/to/emacs-application-framework")
```
Load the EAF package in your Emacs configuration:
```
(require 'eaf)
```
Start using the EAF applications by running the corresponding commands. For example, to start the web browser, use the eaf-open-browser command.

That's the basic setup to get started with the Emacs Application Framework. You can then explore the available applications, customize the framework, and even create your own applications using the provided APIs and tools.

Competitor Comparisons

lsp-bridge

1,480

A blazingly fast LSP client for Emacs

Pros of lsp-bridge

Focused specifically on LSP integration, potentially offering more specialized and optimized LSP support
Lighter weight and more targeted solution for developers primarily interested in LSP functionality
Potentially faster performance due to its specialized nature and use of Rust for core functionality

Cons of lsp-bridge

More limited in scope compared to the broader application framework offered by emacs-application-framework
May require additional setup or plugins for features beyond LSP that are included in emacs-application-framework
Less flexibility for non-LSP related tasks and applications

Code Comparison

lsp-bridge:

(use-package lsp-bridge
  :config
  (global-lsp-bridge-mode))

emacs-application-framework:

(use-package eaf
  :load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/emacs-application-framework"
  :custom
  (eaf-browser-continue-where-left-off t)
  :config
  (eaf-setq eaf-browser-enable-adblocker "true"))

The code snippets show the basic setup for each project. lsp-bridge focuses on enabling LSP functionality globally, while emacs-application-framework provides a more comprehensive framework with various applications and customization options.

lsp-mode

4,828

Emacs client/library for the Language Server Protocol

Pros of lsp-mode

Broader language support with a wide range of Language Server Protocol (LSP) servers
Seamless integration with existing Emacs workflows and packages
Lightweight and focused on providing IDE-like features within Emacs

Cons of lsp-mode

Limited to text-based interactions and editing
Requires separate configuration for each language server
May have performance issues with large projects or complex language servers

Code Comparison

lsp-mode:

(use-package lsp-mode
  :hook ((python-mode . lsp)
         (rust-mode . lsp))
  :commands lsp)

emacs-application-framework:

(use-package eaf
  :load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/emacs-application-framework"
  :custom
  (eaf-browser-continue-where-left-off t)
  (eaf-browser-enable-adblocker t))

The lsp-mode configuration focuses on enabling LSP for specific programming modes, while the emacs-application-framework setup is more about configuring browser-like applications within Emacs.

lsp-mode is better suited for developers looking to enhance their coding experience with IDE-like features, while emacs-application-framework offers a broader range of applications and multimedia support within Emacs. The choice between them depends on whether you prioritize advanced coding features or a more comprehensive suite of applications within your Emacs environment.

Convert designs to code with AI

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot

README

English | ç®ä½ä¸æ

A free/libre and open-source extensible framework that revolutionizes the graphical capabilities of Emacs.
The key to ultimately Live in Emacs

Vision

Emacs, the extensible text editor, is more than 45 years old. It is older than virtually all operating systems people use today, almost as old as the first UNIX system. During the decades of development, the world's brightest hackers have contributed their intelligence and creativity. Together they've constructed the most comprehensive and richest ecosystem that you can find in any software to date.

If you are a hacker who works with numerous languages and text, who's keyboard-driven and desires maximum freedom, extensibility, and introspectivity over your tool, maybe to the extent of living in it, Emacs will be your best bet.

Unfortunately, this 45 years of age is also one of the greatest disadvantages of Emacs. Comparing with modern software, Emacs lacks performance. Specifically Emacs Lisp lacks performance. It doesn't have proper multithreading and its graphical capabilities are seriously limited. It is far from what you'd expect from any GUI application today (such as IDEA or VSCode). You may think that Emacs, as a text-centric editor, doesn't need them, but have you ever run into a situation that, you sit comfortably typing commands and doing your Emacs sorcery, but can't help but ponder:

What if Emacs had a real browser?
What if this PDF or video file could be viewed efficiently without leaving Emacs?

Emacs, although infinitely extensible in text, is very limited in graphics. It shouldn't have to be this way. However, Emacs Lisp is the integral part of the Emacs culture, it carries decades of history with itself, it is what makes Emacs special. It is irreplaceable.

The vision of the Emacs Application Framework (EAF) project is, while fully retaining the rich history, culture, and ecosystem of Emacs and Emacs Lisp, to open up completely new doors to the ecosystems of Python, Qt6, and even JavaScript. EAF extends Emacs to the world of modern graphics, but still preserving the extensibility and customizability of Emacs. It will be the key to ultimately Live in Emacs.

Features

EAF is very extensible. We ship a lot of applications, feel free to choose anything you find interesting to install:

Browser	PDF Viewer

Music Player	File Manager

Browser: A modern, customizable and extensible browser in Emacs
PDF Viewer: Fastest PDF Viewer in Emacs
Music Player: Music player that supports playlist and audio visualization
Video Player: Video Player in Emacs
Image Viewer: Dynanmic image viewer
RSS Reader: RSS Reader in Emacs
Terminal: Full-featured terminal in Emacs
Camera: Use camera in Emacs
Markdown Previewer: Real-time Markdown previewer
Org Previewer: Real-time Org-mode previewer
Git Client: Fully multi-threaded git client for Emacs
File Manager: Fully multi-threaded replacement for dired-mode

... plus many more!

EAF in EmacsConf

EmacsConf 2020: Extend Emacs with EAF	EmacsConf 2021: EAF: A 2021 Update

Install

EAF supports Linux (X11 and Wayland), Windows, macOS and FreeBSD. The installation method is very simple.

1. Download EAF

git clone --depth=1 -b master https://github.com/emacs-eaf/emacs-application-framework.git ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/emacs-application-framework/

2. Install/Update EAF applications and dependencies

You can use M-x eaf-install-and-update or manually run the install-eaf.py script in the EAF directory:

cd emacs-application-framework
chmod +x ./install-eaf.py
./install-eaf.py

There are many useful flags available for install-eaf.py, check it yourself using --help.

There are four types of support for the Wayland environment:

XWayland: EAF can run directly under XWayland
Gnome3 Wayland Native: You need to execute the command cp -r emacs-application-framework/gnome-shell/eaf-wayland@emacs-eaf.org ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions and activate the eaf-wayland@emacs-eaf.org plugin in gnome-extensions
Sway Wayland Native: jq needs to be installed
Hyprland Wayland Native

Unity environment support: requires xdotool to be installed.

3. Load EAF Core

From here on, you can add the full path to the EAF installation directory to your Emacs load-path, then add the following to init.el:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/emacs-application-framework/")
(require 'eaf)

Alternatively, if you use use-package, you can use the following sample configuration for your convenience.

(use-package eaf
  :load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/emacs-application-framework"
  :custom
  ; See https://github.com/emacs-eaf/emacs-application-framework/wiki/Customization
  (eaf-browser-continue-where-left-off t)
  (eaf-browser-enable-adblocker t)
  (browse-url-browser-function 'eaf-open-browser)
  :config
  (defalias 'browse-web #'eaf-open-browser)
  (eaf-bind-key scroll_up "C-n" eaf-pdf-viewer-keybinding)
  (eaf-bind-key scroll_down "C-p" eaf-pdf-viewer-keybinding)
  (eaf-bind-key take_photo "p" eaf-camera-keybinding)
  (eaf-bind-key nil "M-q" eaf-browser-keybinding)) ;; unbind, see more in the Wiki

4. Load EAF Apps

You can use below code to load applications browser and pdf-viewer that you installed. Please check Applications for the full list:

(require 'eaf-browser)
(require 'eaf-pdf-viewer)

5. Hooray!

Congratulations, you just installed EAF! You can try M-x eaf-open-demo (that is if you have demo installed, of course) to see if everything works properly, and enjoy the new possibilities of Emacs.

Below are launch commands of EAF Applications:

Application Name	Launch
Browser	`M-x eaf-open-browser` Search or Goto URL
	`M-x eaf-open-browser-with-history` Search or Goto URL or Goto History
HTML Email Renderer	`M-x eaf-open-mail-as-html` in `gnus`, `mu4e`, `notmuch` HTMl Mail
PDF Viewer	`M-x eaf-open` PDF File
Video Player	`M-x eaf-open` Video File
Image Viewer	`M-x eaf-open` Image File
Markdown Previewer	`M-x eaf-open` Markdown File, select `markdown-previewer`
Org Previewer	`M-x eaf-open` Org File, select `org-previewer`
Camera	`M-x eaf-open-camera`
Terminal	`M-x eaf-open-pyqterminal`
File Manager	`M-x eaf-open-in-file-manager`
RSS Reader	`M-x eaf-open-rss-reader`
Git Client	`M-x eaf-open-git`
Map Route Planning	`M-x eaf-open-map`
File Sender	`M-x eaf-file-sender-qrcode` or `eaf-file-sender-qrcode-in-dired`
File Browser	`M-x eaf-file-browser-qrcode`
Airshare	`M-x eaf-open-airshare`
Markmap	`M-x eaf-open` Markdown or Org file, select `markmap`
Mindmap	`M-x eaf-create-mindmap` or `M-x eaf-open-mindmap`
MS Office Viewer	`M-x eaf-open-office`
Jupyter	`M-x eaf-open-jupyter`
Music Player	`M-x eaf-open-music-player`
System Monitor	`M-x eaf-open-system-monitor`
Demo	`M-x eaf-open-demo` to verify basic functionality
Vue Demo	`M-x eaf-open-vue-demo` to verify vue.js functionality

EAF Browser and PDF Viewer support Emacs built-in bookmark operation, with M-x bookmark-set (defaulted to C-x r m) and M-x bookmark-bmenu-list (defaulted to C-x r l).

Upgrade

Also, you should regularly git pull and run install-eaf.py (M-x eaf-install-and-update) to update EAF, its applications, and relating dependencies.

Report bug

For any installation and configuration assistance, please read the Wiki and FAQ.

If you encounter a problem with EAF, and it occurred after pulling the latest commit, please check the Mandatory Procedures to Keep Your EAF Up-To-Date page first.

For any other problems, please use emacs -q and load a minimal setup with only EAF to verify that the bug is reproducible. If emacs -q works fine, probably something is wrong with your Emacs config.

If the problem persists, please report it here with the *eaf* buffer content. It contains many clues that can help us locate the problem faster.

If you get a segfault error, please use the following way to collect crash information:

Install gdb and turn on option (setq eaf-enable-debug t)
Use the command eaf-stop-process to stop the current process
Restart eaf, send issue with *eaf* buffer content when next crash

EAF in the community

A list of other community packages that use EAF to enhance their graphical experiences!

If we missed your package, please make a PR to add it to the list.

obr-viz: visualizing org-brain relationships using EAF
netease-cloud-music: A netease music client for emacs.
2048pyqt6: A 2048 game that can run in emacs.
pyqterminal: A terminal written in PyQt6.

Contributor

Join Us

Do you want to make Emacs a real "operating system"?

Do you want to live in Emacs more comfortably?

Do you want to revolutionize the capabilities of Emacs?

Let's hack together!

Top Related Projects

lsp-bridge

1,480

A blazingly fast LSP client for Emacs

lsp-mode

4,828

Emacs client/library for the Language Server Protocol

Convert designs to code with AI

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot