From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Lennart Borgman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: w32 does not have emacsclient/server - getting paper size Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:22:06 +0200 Message-ID: <42D8451E.5080204@student.lu.se> References: <42D75F2C.3040303@student.lu.se> <85zmso79mt.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <42D7AA3E.7040508@student.lu.se> <85ll48tfct.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <42D7B125.6030102@student.lu.se> <854qawt85l.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <42D7EB78.9050901@student.lu.se> <85ll48rnzt.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <42D7F881.2080302@student.lu.se> <42D82D20.2030505@student.lu.se> <857jfrrap4.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <42D83525.9090608@student.lu.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1121470299 1453 80.91.229.2 (15 Jul 2005 23:31:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 23:31:39 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs Devel Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jul 16 01:31:38 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtZeU-0008Va-Bo for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:31:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtZgH-0000xb-6h for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:33:21 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DtZaX-0007V4-91 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:27:25 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DtZaS-0007St-BU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:27:21 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtZaN-0007EZ-7g for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:27:15 -0400 Original-Received: from [81.228.8.164] (helo=pne-smtpout2-sn2.hy.skanova.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DtZdo-0002Ns-CZ; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:30:48 -0400 Original-Received: from [192.168.123.121] (83.249.205.6) by pne-smtpout2-sn2.hy.skanova.net (7.2.060.1) id 42B94E2900409228; Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:22:07 +0200 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (Windows/20050317) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Original-To: Jason Rumney In-Reply-To: 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:40970 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:40970 Jason Rumney wrote: >>Ghostscript is not installed that way on w32. It is not supposed to be >>find in the PATH. >> >> > >Why? It seems very inconvenient to require programs to find other >programs by searching for them manually in a "registry", rather than >using the PATH features that are built into the OS. > > There are several reasons I think. One reason is that installing new programs should not change system overall behaviour. A more important reason is that programs on w32 communicate differently than on GNU/Linux. The w32 way, COM (or what the current name for it is, it changes now and then), is rather similar to Corba on a conceptual level. Programs can call other programs through COM and get a result back. The Registry keeps track of the available COM components. COM is designed as interfaces with version control so it gives a rather flexibel environment. Whatever we think of that this is the w32 way and to integrate in the w32 environment as first class citizens this must be accepted.