RFE: Cygw32 GNU Emacs Port

[Ken Brown]

On 10/10/2012 4:14 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Oct  9 23:13, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>> On Tue, Oct 09, 2012 at 10:45:01PM -0400, Ken Brown wrote:
>>> [Redirecting from cygwin to cygwin-apps.]
>>> On 10/9/2012 10:19 PM, Daniel Colascione wrote:
>>>> [...]
>>>> When we release Emacs 24.3 packages for Cygwin, would it be possible
>>>> to add a package for users who want to use cygw32 Emacs?
>>>
>>> It would be easy enough for me to do, assuming it builds without a
>>> problem.  But I have a couple of qualms about it:
>>>
>>> 1. This strikes me as going against the spirit of Cygwin, which tries to
>>> emulate Linux.  Why shouldn't users who want a GUI version of emacs just
>>> use emacs-X11, as they would on Linux?  We don't provide Win32 versions
>>> of other X11 programs as far as I know.
>>>
>>> 2. Because there is so much Windows-specific code in it, I wouldn't feel
>>> competent to support it if users have problems.  I'm not at all familiar
>>> with that kind of programming.
>>>
>>> I'd like to hear what others think, especially cgf and Corinna.
>>
>> I had similar mild concerns about the "un-Cygwinness" of it.  But, we do have
>> other packages like mintty which have specific Windows code in them and, even
>> the X package has to have Windows code.
>>
>> So, I'd leave the decision entirely up to your competent hands.  I'm
>> amazed that you do such a good job supporting such a complicated package
>> already so I'd expect that you could pick up the Windows stuff
>> eventually.  The only question is really if you want to take on the
>> added support costs.
>>
>> Maybe you could release it as a test package and see just how much bother
>> it could be?
>>
>> Otherwise, I could say ABSOLUTELY NOT and you could blame me.  :-)
>
> Not much more to say.  As an additional datapoint I'd like to point out
> that Volker's XEmacs package also already comes with a Win32 GUI, which
> is used by default if DISPLAY isn't set.
>
> If a package has to choose (for technical reasons) between an X GUI and
> a W32 GUI, I'd prefer the X GUI.  If both GUIs are possible in parallel,
> it's the maintainer's call.

OK, I'll give it a try.  Since Daniel is willing to help with support, 
it shouldn't be much extra work.

Ken