From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Morgan Willcock Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [ELPA] New package: kixtart-mode Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2022 23:59:56 +0000 Message-ID: <8735994oeb.fsf@ice9.digital> References: <87fsdkd8mg.fsf@telefonica.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="11306"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.2 (gnu/linux) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: =?utf-8?Q?=C3=93scar?= Fuentes Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 21 01:00:57 2022 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1p7mXY-0002kG-Hw for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 21 Dec 2022 01:00:56 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1p7mWl-0000vs-NI; Tue, 20 Dec 2022 19:00:07 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1p7mWj-0000u8-Gw for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 20 Dec 2022 19:00:05 -0500 Original-Received: from relay5-d.mail.gandi.net ([2001:4b98:dc4:8::225]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1p7mWh-0007fe-FG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 20 Dec 2022 19:00:05 -0500 Original-Received: (Authenticated sender: morgan@ice9.digital) by mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 83B361C0002; Tue, 20 Dec 2022 23:59:57 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=ice9.digital; s=gm1; t=1671580798; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding: in-reply-to:in-reply-to:references:references; bh=QPPsckTZAFyHl3lSAL0hdnbuSoHC4GFNDtIV1jrwuPM=; b=UGeIkd+tjfT48VkqiMvnsvm7II/s1SgkVYUcPS/dVcfPxHvq3ImNL7yC6EYL5WHZQN99nY sn8j8WLcW3p0r/VNUfEi/9KCGzxDLWI2pcQq2WmmjSVudQ9RQSBImNbQvpWZg8EXKa6dZ3 Eq+7rttDEg9ykbeO88LWelIj7oBID3g6bEm9DG6rZo89QnYXceE9JbDJEgse+AEGZpibcz z7Re+pqt8byjXP5HtJDsFX8ipG5lPneVDcEnQnqovC81+fRW+kwNXrLKiPbURWEyCXophg eKmKJZacO4Z5GIcY4U+53ShTvlcMhIW6emTZHPHOo52dU56Zt5xOVL0/rI0nog== In-Reply-To: <87fsdkd8mg.fsf@telefonica.net> (=?utf-8?Q?=22=C3=93scar?= Fuentes"'s message of "Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:00:55 +0100") Received-SPF: pass client-ip=2001:4b98:dc4:8::225; envelope-from=morgan@ice9.digital; helo=relay5-d.mail.gandi.net X-Spam_score_int: -27 X-Spam_score: -2.8 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.8 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-0.7, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:301713 Archived-At: =C3=93scar Fuentes writes: > Eli Zaretskii writes: > >>> >> BUT, it is a bad thing if people use SickStart to write scripts >>> >> that they could have written in a free scripting language. >>> > >>> > There are no scripting languages for MS-Windows that are Free >>> > Software, AFAIK. To clarify on exactly what type of scripting language this is: KiXtart is not a general purpose scripting language it was specifically designed to be used as a Windows logon script processor. It would not make sense to port it to a non-Windows platform because the majority of functionality is derived from wrapping Win32 API calls. A free software alternative can exist but primarily it would have to operate by making Win32 API calls. >>> After a cursory look at kixtart, I would say with confidence that Tcl/Tk >>> with the twapi package provides a superset of its features. >> >> Does Tcl/Tk provide access to the low-level Windows APIs, like >> Registry and Win32 functions? > > Registry access is provided by Tcl out of the box. Access to Windows > APIs is provided by the twapi package. > > https://twapi.magicsplat.com/ An equivalent in functionality would a self-contained Tcl kit which includes the TWAPI library, but this is less appealing for three reasons (and bear in mind that I like Tcl): - When I looked into building a Tcl kit from source there was no documented or standard method to build one, what is recommended is to download a pre-built binary and trust it - The self-contained Tcl kit would be significantly larger than the KiXtart binary, this will get copied across the network whenever a user logs in - When I tried querying and mapping printers with TWAPI it didn't seem to work correctly I'm sure it can be argued that any scripting language with an FFI interface is suitable, but in practical terms the only options which don't require crafting your own portable interpreter are VBScript, JScript, and PowerShell - these are already available locally. P.S. If anyone was still interested to look at the package it has now moved to sourcehut: https://git.sr.ht/~mew/kixtart-mode Thanks, Morgan