Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 10:59:09 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please AT cygwin DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: mintty doesn't run on NT4 due to lack of GetConsoleWindow
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On Thu, Aug 06, 2009 at 12:18:10PM +0100, Andy Koppe wrote:
>2009/8/6 Christopher Faylor:
>> I spent much of the day trying to resurrect my Windows NT4 system and
>> now that I finall have it back, I just tried to run mintty and noticed
>> that it seems to be using GetConsoleWindow. ??That's not allowed on NT4.
>> I get an error that says:
>>
>> "The procedure entry point GetConsoleWindow could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll"
>>
>> This means that this entry point isn't available on Windows NT4.
>>
>> Andy would it be possible to avoid calling this function when it isn't
>> available?
>
>If you build mintty from source on 1.7, the workaround code with that
>call is omitted, so this particular issue will go away as soon as 1.5
>goes dead and I release a 1.7-compiled mintty. (Been too lazy to
>dual-package.)
>
>However, I suspect NT4 will also barf at "SetLayeredWindowAttributes",
>and there might be others. I guess the way to work around such issues
>is via GetModuleHandle and GetProcAddress?

Right.  We have some amazingly brilliant code in autoload.cc which does
on-the-fly loading of modules, allowing nonexistent functions to just
return an error.  You can use this, if you'd like.

>If you think it's worth the effort and you want to be the guinea pig,
>I'd have a go at making mintty run on NT4. I don't want to set up NT4
>myself though.

I'm willing to be the guinea pig.

>(And to be honest I don't see the point in Cygwin 1.7 still supporting
>NT4. Anyone willing to stick with an OS that's been unsupported for
>five years should be more than happy to stick with Cygwin 1.5.)

I know it's unsupported but people still use it and, perhaps more
unimportantly, it really is a pretty nice OS.  The UI isn't bad and it's
pretty responsive.  So, I guess it's a "would be nice".  I also noted
yesterday that X doesn't work there due to an illegal instruction.  I don't
exactly understand why that is yet.

cgf

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