Subject: Re: Emacs for Cygwin (was: cygwin-mount.el, Using GDB in NTEMACS)
From: Jon Cast <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 21:33:11 -0600

You wrote:

> I think that we need a CygEmacs - an emacs that will be compiled
> with the real Cygwin ported gcc (i.e. without the
> -mno-cygwin).

I should probably point out that I am (slowly) working on such a port
of Emacs.

> CygEmacs will have UNIX APIs for I/O (files and
> sockets), and M$Windows APIs for the display and the keyboard. This
> is already done (partly) by the Cygwin port of rxvt.

I used to agree with you, but the more I think about it, the more I
think the ideal solution (bearing in mind that we are talking about a
*Cygwin* port of Emacs) is use the normal LessTif toolkit support, and
make LessTif work ``right'' from our perspective under Windows.  (This
would also allow us to support remote X connections, which is IMNSHO
one of the major features X has over Windows.)  Only if/while this is
not workable/not worth the effort should we use the native APIs
directly.

> If this is too difficult, 

It's certainly non-trivial, but it's not difficult, either.  All it
takes is a grep for WINDOWSNT, and then a check of each of those ~ 206
occurrences to see if each one should read WINDOWSNT or (WINDOWSNT ||
CYGWIN).

> may be a version of Emacs for Cygwin, that use only the UNIX APIs
> can be ported. This Emacs version will be used only within Cygwin's
> windows - Console or rxvt (Emacs in TTY mode) or real display (using
> Cygwin-Xfree).

This second approach surrenders practically nothing for the kind of
user Cygwin targets once Cygwin-Xfree supports a rootless X server.
So, I think if that approach is workable it should be pursued instead.

> Any of these version will solve the 2 major issues of using Emacs
> with Cygwin - 1. The files (names and attributes). 2. Running of
> sub-shells in Emacs (file is not tty problem). It may solve another
> problem that bothers me - running a client on the PC to a server on
> UNIX.

Right, because the alternatives you name don't affect the use of Posix
APIs for these operations.  (Although I agree that the primary purpose
of a Cygwin port of Emacs is to get the Posix APIs for the
operations.)

> Ehud.

Jon Cast

 LocalWords:  LessTif WINDOWSNT

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