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Date:	Tue, 31 Dec 2013 00:32:38 +0400
From:	Andrey Repin <anrdaemon AT yandex DOT ru>
Reply-To:	Andrey Repin <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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To:	Jonathan Martin <metashifter AT yahoo DOT com>, cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject:	Re: A ream of questions
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Greetings, Jonathan Martin!

> I suspected I would not get my point across, but the questions were more important. 

If I understand your complaints right, you have to go to the very home page of
the project and carefully read the very first few paragraphs there, carefully
named "What [cygwin] is" and "what [cygwin] isn't".

>>> I've been fooling around with Cygwin for awhile now and I haven't done
>>> anything overly serious with it but I have spent a serious amount of time
>>> just thinking about what it could do and fooling around with other tools
>>> that look like it. I've come up with questions that don't have answers yet,
>>> though I've had to condense them down to just the questions.
> 
> 
>>> Q: Why doesn't cygwin use an emacs as its frontend instead of a dosshell?
> 
>> What is "dosshell"? Whatever it is, Cygwin doesn't use it. It use either
>> native Windows console or it's own mintty by default.

> The DOS shell is the native mintty for windows, even if you use a shell
> program the buffer is a DOSshell window.

You're not helping. Probably you don't know yourself, what you are trying to
convey... in either case, your circular references point nowhere.

> Emacs has a primitive Unixy shell that could be used as the terminal for
> Cygwin, and can broaden its functionality through powershell hacking in
> Emacs Lisp. It has also already fixed the common path conversion issue. This
> was one of my favorite questions so I have a few ideas on why this would be
> better. 

If you want a powercrap, use it.
I prefer bash.

>>> Q: Why don't we work on setting up a full blown tutorial system with a set
>>> of shell scripts and documentation segregation so that newbies can grok The
>>> Hacker's Dreaming?
> 
>> You're very welcome.

>    I have no idea what this means?

"You're very welcome to improve everything you see."
This is more clear?

> What I was getting at is that a simple document and a few scripts could be
> written that tells new users about the filesystem and a few basic tools
> while teaching them about compiling with something that isn't likely to
> break, documentation.

All the documentation about filesystem is avail... oh, wait... Microsoft
doesn't tell us shit about their filesystem...

If sarcasm isn't clear enough: Cygwin is NOT a new operating system. Largely,
it isn't even an application in itself, to tell the truth. At the core, Cygwin
project could be described as just a single library. cygwin1.dll. What you
imply in this your statement just not applicable to Cygwin.

> This could go on to make the whole process less confusing for new users.

Erm?... If you are not familiar with Linux tools, and not intend to be, Cygwin
will be of no use to you, I'm afraid.

>>> Q: Why doesn't Cygwin do something similar to Cpan?

>> And what exactly that supposed to mean?

> cpan is the module system for Perl. Its much easier to use than most of the
> packaging systems I've used that aren't also the cornerstone of a
> distribution. I had thought it might be possible to use something similar
> with cygwin so that mirrors would not be the issue they are now. 

What issues we are speaking about?...... I don't see any.

>>> Q: Why is "#!>help" so useless? Why doesn't it get fixed to act more like
>>> the old DOS help?

>> Explain, what you mean, especially, what you mean by "dos help"?

> In windows, and in legacy DOS consoles, "Help" was an interactive help that
> listed the major commands. In Linux its a printf with accessories.

In Linux, it's "man", dear. Also "info". So does it in Cygwin.

> My reference is DOS 5 and newer, and I think its better and part of why linux
> is less popular. 

Perhaps, you just don't know, how to cook it?
So far, I was finding any necessary information about Linux commands right
inside the box.
Not like there's no Google to help, though... I picked quite a lot of good
tricks from user comments across the internets.


--
WBR,
Andrey Repin (anrdaemon AT yandex DOT ru) 31.12.2013, <00:17>

Sorry for my terrible english...

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