From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stuart D. Herring" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: emacsclientw Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:15:38 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <35390.128.165.123.18.1165360538.squirrel@webmail.lanl.gov> References: <455859DA.5010402@gnu.org> <4558F507.1030801@gnu.org> <7dbe73ed0611132318i7d58fd19o2989ed183b015278@mail.gmail.com> <4559716E.5060408@gnu.org> <7dbe73ed0611140044g16caced8wd05370b8d2df6663@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: herring@lanl.gov NNTP-Posting-Host: dough.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1165360567 21774 80.91.229.10 (5 Dec 2006 23:16:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 23:16:07 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Juanma Barranquero , emacs-devel@gnu.org, Jason Rumney Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 06 00:16:05 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by dough.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1GrjW2-0004yR-UU for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:15:59 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GrjW2-0008QX-7b for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:15:58 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GrjVs-0008QH-8I for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:15:48 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GrjVp-0008Q0-5k for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:15:47 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GrjVp-0008Px-20 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:15:45 -0500 Original-Received: from [192.65.95.54] (helo=mailwasher-b.lanl.gov) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1GrjVo-0003VU-2f; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:15:44 -0500 Original-Received: from mailrelay1.lanl.gov (mailrelay1.lanl.gov [128.165.4.101]) by mailwasher-b.lanl.gov (8.13.8/8.13.8/(ccn-5)) with ESMTP id kB5NFdaJ017131; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 16:15:39 -0700 Original-Received: from webmail1.lanl.gov (webmail1.lanl.gov [128.165.4.106]) by mailrelay1.lanl.gov (8.13.8/8.13.8/(ccn-5)) with ESMTP id kB5NFcnT018052; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 16:15:38 -0700 Original-Received: from webmail1.lanl.gov (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by webmail1.lanl.gov (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id kB5NFcP6013954; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 16:15:38 -0700 Original-Received: (from apache@localhost) by webmail1.lanl.gov (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11/Submit) id kB5NFc3j013952; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:15:38 -0800 X-Authentication-Warning: webmail1.lanl.gov: apache set sender to herring@lanl.gov using -f Original-Received: from 128.165.123.18 (SquirrelMail authenticated user 196434) by webmail.lanl.gov with HTTP; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:15:38 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <7dbe73ed0611140044g16caced8wd05370b8d2df6663@mail.gmail.com> Original-To: "Mathias Dahl" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.6-7.el3.7lanl X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal X-PMX-Version: 4.7.1.128075 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:63331 Archived-At: Not attempting to raise the dead (threads) here, but I realized I never actually replied to this: >> > (they wonder why they just cannot associate the >> > emacs exe directly with certain file types without getting multiple >> > copies running). >> >> They can't do that with any other program either without knowing the >> internals of what DDE commands it uses, and setting them up in the >> association. > > I did not know that. It's not entirely true. Explorer (the shell) is capable of remembering DDE commands for a file type and executing them itself when the program is already running, and many installers arrange for this to happen (because it's too complicated to do manually). (Obviously such an installer could be developed for emacsclient, but it's also a valid goal to minimize the complexity of installation.) However, nothing prevents a program that is so-minded from detecting that it is already running (this is particularly easy on Windows), executing a DDE transaction with said established process that corresponds to its command-line arguments, and then exiting. Many if not most "professional" Windows programs do this, as their monolithic (often MDI with a complicated GUI) design heavily favors having precisely 0 or 1 copies running at any time. Unfortunately, many of them do this without providing any alternative behavior. The emacsclient design is arguably better, where the decision between communication and execution is made by a separate process with its own customizable logic. However, it is not true that Windows users will automatically accept as reasonable the situation where said separate program must be the one associated with their files, because the automatic/monolithic behavior is so common. Davis -- This product is sold by volume, not by mass. If it appears too dense or too sparse, it is because mass-energy conversion has occurred during shipping.