Re: rfe: seamless windows integration

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

Harold,

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, Harold L Hunt II wrote:

> Christopher Faylor wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 07:46:43PM -0400, Harold L Hunt II wrote:
> >
> >>2. All X client application on one's machine should have shortcuts
> >>associated with them in the start menu, and these shortcuts should be
> >>created automatically during installation.
> >>
> >>This is icing on the cake.  This is the kind of thing that Microsoft
> >>hires 500 college interns to write in the summer because it takes a hell
> >>of a lot of time and attention to detail to get it 'right', whereas the
> >>overall benefit is very small in comparison.
> >>
> >>Furthermore, this requires interacting with the Cygwin setup developers.
> >>You think I am mean?
> >
> > The setup developers aren't all that mean, actually.  But, then neither
> > are you.
>
> Heh heh...

Indeed.

> > However, I don't see why this would require any setup changes.  A
> > postinstall script should be able to set up icons, etc.  I can't decide
> > if the thought of a folder filled with scores of icons for X programs is
> > intriguing or frightening, though.

CGF is right (on both counts ;-)).  The cygwin-doc package already does
that, BTW.

> I think the thing that would require modification is the part where we
> confirm with the user whether or not they want such icons to be created.
>   It would probably be worse to just create 100 icons without asking
> than it would be to not create them at all.
>
> Harold

I believe the suggestion of a "dialog" utility for postinstall script user
interaction has floated up on the cygwin-apps list a couple of times.
The main problem is propagating the unattended mode of setup onto it, so
there must be some setup integration (i.e., you don't want setup to sit
there waiting for user input from the desktop when running over ssh on a
remote machine).  Perhaps setting an environment variable in setup to
notify the postinstall scripts that they should use the console, for
example?  If you're seriously considering the icon creation suggestion,
this might be a good time to revive that discussion.
	Igor
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