[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] Date Index Thread Index Search archive:
Date:Mon Oct 30 12:18:07 2002 
Subject:Re: query about windows poplog 
From:Jeff Best 
Volume-ID:1021030.02 

Aaron,

In message <apjabt$2evs$1@soapbox.cs.bham.ac.uk>, A.Sloman@cs.bham.ac.uk 
writes
>I have had this question from Austin tate who has been playing with
>windows poplog V15.5
>
>> Is there a command that tells you the directory poplog or pop-11 is
>> set to as a base?
>
>
>On unix/linux it would be
>       systranslate('usepop')=>
>
>but I expect that does not work on windows, and don't have time to try
>just now.
>

As I mentioned by email, systranslate('usepop')=> also works in Windows.

>> or one that lists the directories in the current directory?
>
>When I last tried ENTER dired, and ENTER ls,
>in windows poplog neither worked.
>
>Is there an alternative that does work?
>

I have looked at the case of Windows + Cygwin. Assuming Cygwin is 
installed in C:\cygwin, then the following will work without any changes 
to the ved_ls function.

'C:\\cygwin\\bin\\bash.exe' -> systranslate('SHELL');

followed by

<ENTER> ls <RETURN>

in the VED environment.

Of course, you need to check that in your installation of Cygwin, bash 
is in /bin and not /usr/bin or some other place. I remember making some 
specific changes to the structure of the Cygwin directories because an 
earlier version managed to get them very muddled.

The assignment to SHELL can be made in Windows (using the system dialog 
or SET command), or within Poplog initialisation in an init.p file.

Using the Cygwin resources, I expect that most of the VED extra commands 
expecting to exec or pipe to an external command will work, as is, since 
the default assumption is that the system is running in a Unix 
environment.

At some point, the VED commands ought to be changed to provide explicit 
support for native Windows. It might be better to avoid this wherever 
possible by using a platform-neutral procedure. For example, ved_ls 
could be rewritten to use sys_files_matching and sys_file_stat. It would 
then work under any version (current or future) of Poplog and the 
results could be made available in a pre-determined format that was not 
platform dependent, suitable for use via an enumerator. However we do 
this, the semantics for file specification on different platforms will 
be a nuisance.

>If possible please copy replies to A.Tate AT ed.ac.uk
>

I'm not sure if I can cc: a news reply, but when I've finished looking 
at the native Windows case, I'll send Austin a summary of both.

>I presume this may one day be fixed by the proposal to use cygwin
>to make unix/linux poplog work on windows.
>

It looks as if it is much easier to make existing code work with Cygwin 
with a few configuration changes than to complete the migration of the 
non-core code.

Next stop Poplog + Windows + Cygwin + X-Windows.

Regards,
-- 
Jeff