Emacs GUI for Mac, linux and windows

Question

I'd like to start using emacs but I want also a GUI in which it will be available in windows, ubuntu linux (desktop) and mac osx. Is GNU/Emacs capable for this? What other choices are there and how different is for each OS?

Also is there any disadvantages of using emacs with gui (for example, I can't use some kind of widgets or use something else) and how most other programmers prefer to use emacs? I want to use it as a replacement for textmate for ruby on rails development, any other suggestions?

Answer 1

Yes. There is a Windows version of emacs, and you can use the X-windows interface on both linux and OS X. There are also several different versions with native OS X GUIs.

Emacs is essentially a terminal-based program; there are no real disadvantages to having it running in a nice window, and the advantage of using mouse clicks and the menus.

Answer 2

Emacs has a native GUI version of GTK+(GNOME's toolkit), OSX with Cocoa from Emacs 23+(there is used to be Carbon Emacs before that, but it's now en route to oblivion) and Windows version.

I personally use emacs in daemon mode(emacs --daemon) and use emacslient to connect terminal and X clients to the daemon. I spend most of the time in a X frame though, I find that much more productive - instead of running Emacs in a terminal like many people do, I run my terminal in Emacs. I don't used menus/toolbars - just a naked frame most of the time, split into many windows.

For rails development with Emacs you should have a look at rinari and nxhtml.