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Re: setup and mintty (was Re: New setup.exe release?)


On 26 May 2011 09:07, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On May 26 08:00, Andy Koppe wrote:
>> On 25 May 2011 16:51, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>> > On May 25 09:54, Thomas Wolff wrote:
>> >> Am 25.05.2011 09:43, schrieb Andy Koppe:
>> >> >...
>> >> >Ah, sorry, I didn't realise that the desktop shortcut at the moment
>> >> >was simply called "Cygwin" rather than "Cygwin Bash Shell". I suppose
>> >> >that could just stay like that actually.
>> >> >
>> >> >Also, since the start menu shortcut already is inside the "Cygwin"
>> >> >folder, just "Terminal" rather than "Cygwin Terminal" would be nice
>> >> >and crisp there.
>> >> I think common usage is to give shortcuts rather a complete name.
>> >> That's also better if people move them around, placing a copy on the
>> >> desktop etc.
>> >> And since bash shell runs in both command windows (is that a common
>> >> name?), I think the previous proposal "Cygwin Console" and "Cygwin
>> >> Terminal" is the best to distinguish them.
>> >
>> > I'm wondering if renaming the shortcuts is wise.
>> >
>> > New users should get the new shortcuts, but what about users who just
>> > update Cygwin? ÂIf we rename the shortcuts, existing users will
>> > have both check buttons in the last dialog checked again, even if they
>> > already had installed the "old" shortcuts before.
>> >
>> > Alternatively setup could test for the old and the new shortcut names,
>> > and only install if neither the old, nor the new ones exist.
>>
>> Gah, this is surprisingly difficult.
>>
>> How about:
>>
>> - Don't rename the desktop shortcut, leaving it as "Cygwin". This
>> means that it won't change for users that already have one, nor will
>> they get another desktop shortcut. Only newly created desktop
>> shortcuts would point at mintty, resulting in a somewhat more phased
>> introduction instead of springing it on users, which seems a prudent
>> thing to do.
>
> Agreed.
>
>> - Offer the start menu item creation unless either "Console" or
>> "Terminal" is present in the Cygwin folder. If requested, remove
>> "Cygwin Bash Shell" and create "Console" and "Terminal". (Add "Cygwin"
>> prefixes according to taste. I think anyone who moves the shortcuts
>> elsewhere would be quite capable of renaming them if they feel the
>> need to.)
>
> Ooh, no. ÂI really don't like the idea to offer two start menu entries
> by default. ÂI'm not sure a lot of people even have a vague
> understanding what the difference between "console" and "terminal" is.
> If in doubt, I bet most people will choose the alphabetically first
> entry without reading or thinking, quite along the lines of
> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000062.html

Fair point.

> If we really do that, the name of the console entry should be last, and
> ugly, so that people choose the "Cygwin Terminal" entry with a higher
> probability. Â "Windows Console window with a bash within, only use if
> you must" or something.

:)

That's possibly worse and certainly uglier than not having it at all,
so let's leave it.

On a closely related note, there's the issue of the mintty postinstall
script. Simply dropping the "mintty" shortcut creation when setup.exe
is changed would mean that the shortcut would disappear without
replacement for people updating with a not-quite-up-to-date setup.exe
or who habitually untick the "Add start menu item" checkbox.

Therefore I think I should change the postinstall script such that it
continues to create the "mintty" shortcut, but only if "Cygwin
Terminal" isn't there. However, since setup.exe creates its shortcuts
*after* running the postinstall script, people would end up with both
"mintty" and "Cygwin Terminal" until the mintty package is next
updated. Avoiding that requires setup.exe to nuke the "mintty"
shortcut when it creates "Cygwin Terminal".

Andy


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