Aquamacs
Aquamacs is a macOS-specific adaptation of GNU Emacs, the legendary text editor and programming environment. It brings GNU Emacs' legendary configurability and extensibility to the Mac while adding native Mac conventions like standard keyboard shortcuts, menu integration, and multiple-window or tabbed interfaces. Aquamacs includes language modes for C, C++, Java, Python, Perl, R, Lisp, LaTeX, HTML, XML and many others, with syntax highlighting and language-specific tools. It serves programmers, writers, system administrators, and academic users who need a powerful, customisable editor with deep scriptability via Emacs Lisp.
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1 suggestionAquamacs 3.6 (the current stable release) runs under Rosetta on Apple Silicon but contains only Intel-compiled code. However, a native Apple Silicon build is actively in development. Aquamacs 4 (currently in alpha as of April 2026) is distributed as a Universal Binary that includes native ARM64 compiled code for M-series Macs alongside Intel support, bringing native performance and better battery life. Since you have more than two years before Rosetta 2 is removed in September 2028, you have time to monitor Aquamacs development. For immediate use, Aquamacs 3.6 remains fully functional on Apple Silicon under Rosetta. For the long term, watch the Aquamacs download page and GitHub releases for the final 4.0 release to transition to the native build. If you need native Apple Silicon support today and do not want to wait for Aquamacs 4 to exit alpha, Emacs for Mac OS X (available via Homebrew or from emacsformacosx.com) offers a native Universal Binary alternative, although it lacks some of Aquamacs' Mac-specific polish.
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