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Message-ID: <028e01c2c3f0$d148c610$78d96f83@pomello>
From: "Max Bowsher" <maxb AT ukf DOT net>
To: <caelum AT debian DOT org>, <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
References: <000701c2c3ea$ac30ad30$0201a8c0 AT ISIS>
Subject: Re: idea for a new project, libntcmd
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 21:37:38 -0000
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Rafael Kitover wrote:
> Currently there is a fundamental divide between the cmd.exe shell and
> a unix shell, even on windows with Cygwin.
>
> A source project can of course support a native windows build using a
> makefile with make --win32, or using dmake
> (http://search.cpan.org/author/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32). Or configure
> and build itself using MSYS in mingw or cygwin with gcc -mno-cygwin.
>
> What would be more convenient though, is having a set of modules for
> bash and zsh to
>
> 1) recognize obvious windows file names rather than escape sequences,
> so you could write C:\foo\bar instead of C:\\foo\\bar, or
> \windows\system32\... This is not as difficult or ugly as it may
> sound.

This _possibly_ has a use.

> 2) support cmd.exe builtins like del/copy/exists/etc, and execute dos
> batch files. Things like if and goto, because they're only useful in
> batch, would present little problem as well.

Yuk! Why?

> This would allow better interaction between the windows and cygwin
> worlds, and also be convenient for windows users new to unix.

Really? Or would it simply delay them learning the knowledge to function in
an environment that does not make specific allowances for them?

> It would
> also remove most of the reasons a user might have to use cmd instead
> of a cygwin shell.

My only reason to use cmd is to execute MS commands which break with
Cygwin's tty handling (e.g. net use's prompt-for-password)

> It should also allow for running windows makefiles
> as-is.

This feels more like MSYS territory than Cygwin.

> Thoughts? Is this interesting/crazy/impossible?

Well, you're getting a biased opinion here - I hate cmd. But I think this
has 2 flaws:

1) You want to make bash play nice with Windows paths - what about all those
supplementary tools that makefiles often invoke?

2) I could be wrong, but I don't think you are going to get that much
enthusiam about this.

Max.


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