Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
===============================================
A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the
SimTel.NET archives. This version apparently works under MS-DOS and
Windows (3.X, 9X, ME, NT, and 2000) and supports long file names under
Windows 9X, Windows ME, and Windows 2000. More information is available
from
`http://www.simtel.net/pub/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README'
The binary itself is available in the files `em*.zip' in the
directory
`http://www.simtel.net/pub/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/'
If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you can do so with the
current distribution directly. You will need a 386 (or better)
processor, and to be running MS-DOS 3.0 or later. According to Eli
Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> and Darrel Hankerson
<hankedr@dms.auburn.edu>, you will need the following:
_Compiler_
DJGPP version 1.12 maint 1 or later. Djgpp 2.0 or later is
recommended, since 1.x is very old an unmaintained. Djgpp 2
supports long file names on Windows 9X/ME/2K.
You can get the latest release of DJGPP by retrieving all of the
files in
`http://www.simtel.net/pub/gnu/djgpp/v2*'
_Unpacking program_
The easiest way is to use `djtar' which comes with DJGPP v2.x,
because it can open gzip'ed tarfiles (i.e., those ending with
`.tar.gz') in one step. `Djtar' comes in `djdevNNN.zip' archive
(where NNN is the DJGPP version number), from the URL mentioned
above.
*Warning!* Do *not* use the popular WinZip program to unpack the
Emacs distribution! WinZip is known to corrupt some of the files
by converting them to the DOS CR-LF format, it doesn't always
preserve the directory structure recorded in the compressed Emacs
archive, and commits other atrocities. Some of these problems
could actually prevent Emacs from building successfully!
_make, mv, sed, and rm_
All of these utilities are available at
`http://www.simtel.net/pub/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu'
16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish, at
`http://www.simtel.net/pub/gnu/gnuish'
(`mv' and `rm' are in the Fileutils package, `sed' and `make' are
each one in a separate package named after them.)
The files `INSTALL' (near its end) and `etc/PROBLEMS' in the
directory of the Emacs sources contains some additional information
regarding Emacs under MS-DOS.
For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and
literature," available at
`ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/'
Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they
often lack certain features, such as the Emacs Lisp extension language.