Re: Bug in startxwin.bat after installing with setup.exe in win98SE

[Jehan <nahor at bravobrava dot com>]

Harold L Hunt wrote:
> Okay, if you are so smart, explain to me how I can put a drive letter into a
> batch file that is expected to work on computers where Cygwin could be
> installed on ``c:\cygwin'' or ``d:\cygwin''?  I certainly could not put ``c''
> as the drive, nor could I put ``d'' as the drive.  So, what do you suggest?
First, I'm not trying to bash you (how could I, we are fellow 
Cgwin/XFree programmers *grin*) but I'm trying to understand your 
motivation. So here is my question: in what sense is "\cygwin" better 
"c:\cygwin"? I mean, I used to install cygwin in "c:\program 
files\cygwin". So neither "\cygwin" nor "c:\cygwin" would work. But 
then, when I see just "\cygwin", I think a unix path (I know, the "\" 
isn't a "/", but I'm a little dumb sometimes :p). So at first, I 
overlooked it. I'm pretty sure that if I had seend "c:\cygwin", I would 
have thought of changing it.
The other thing too is that "\cygwin" is sort of a bastard. It's not a 
full path because it doesn't have the drive letter. It's not a relative 
path because it doesn't start from the current directory but from the 
root of the current drive.
Last, with "\cygwin", the batch file works sometimes (the current drive 
is where cygwin is) and sometimes it doesn't (wrong current drive). As a 
programmer, I prefer things that always crash or never do.
So, in this light, as my personal opinion (which doesn't matter anymore 
 now that I have cygwin in "c:\cygwin" ;p ), would be to use an full 
absolute path.


> Okay, okay, so you are thinking, ``just use cygpath, duh''.  However, if I
> could use ``cygpath'', then that implies that I already know where the Cygwin
> binaries are located since I just ran one of them.  But, I don't know where
> the Cygwin binaries are located, as that is why we are guessing what the path is.
Can the batch file be created via the installation script? Then you're 
environment would be cygwin and not windows, wouldn't it? The thing I 
don't know there would be the "cr/lf" vs "lf" thing.


> > That's no excuse to fail to fix a known problem.
Bernard,
And "not having a better solution", is it a good excuse? It's always 
easy to critize but critizing doesn't make the world to go forward.


> Huh?  There are things in life that are worth spending time on because they
> will have a large effect, and there are things in life that are not worth
> spending time on because they will have almost no effect whatsoever.  Changing
> the startxwin.bat file to allow people to run it from a location other than
> where it is installed to (which has got to be obvious to most users as doing
> something that was not intended), is one of those things that will have almost
> no effect.  You are going to have to do a lot better than that if you expect
> me to keep my gleaming white ass in a dimly lit room programming when I could
> be sitting outside by the pool, getting a tan, and drinking a beer.
>
> Man, if you are going to try to one-up the maintainer in public, you had damn
> well better be giving a complete solution, rather than trying to suggest that
> the maintainer creates one himself.  Because in the latter case you just open
> yourself up to off-topic ranting like I just did.  Yes, this makes me feel
> better when I get to write funny things about how I don't like to program. 
> So, in a way, you have done me a good service.  Thank you :)
Go harold, go!! Kill him :). You know what is better than "sitting 
outside by the pool, getting a tan, and drinking a beer"? It sitting 
outside by the pool, getting a tan, drinking a beer and watching a fight 
game! :)

	Jehan