Re: [dev] [st] windows port?

From: pancake <pancake_AT_youterm.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:58:31 +0200

On 04/11/13 19:24, Joseph Xu wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 10:59 AM, Max DeLiso <maxdeliso_AT_gmail.com> wrote:
>> A) That's stupid
>> B) Therefore OP must be stupid.
>
> I don't think you're stupid, because the few times I've had to use
> cmd.exe, I've thought about this myself. But I do think it's a waste of
> time. How much do you use the console in Windows? Very few native Windows
> programs are written for it, and the ones that exist certainly do not
> expect or take advantage of VT102 emulation for curses functionality. So
> the benefit of the port is minimal. I think you are just trying
> to shoehorn the paradigm of one OS into another.
>
> On the other hand, I think a nicer console program without terminal
> emulation and nicer GUI features, along the lines of 9term, would be
> much simpler to implement and may be worth the cost.
>

in fact th way windows access the terminal is by API and not by ANSI, so
if you want to handle ^C you have to hook a callback to a function and
if you want to print colors on screen you have to call some functions to
setup a new palete and so on.

what cygwin does is the same as I did in r_cons (inside r2). parse every
buffer that will be printed on screen and change every ANSI code by a
buffer flush and a function call to change the color.

also, the api doesnt permits the same features as ansi permits, and
flushing so many times results in much slower rendering.

i remember that there was an ansi.sys driver that was doing this.. but
wonder what happened with that..

but well. its windows, and nobody cares. in fact, last time i had
windows at home was around 1999... and well, i have tried to avoid jobs
where i had to use w32... to try to keep my mind sane. Rejecting this
kind of jobs is my way to try to make the world a better place.

theorically the "new" shell in windows is "powershell" which is
something like a object oriented shell (similar to ruby), with nice
features that nobody care because they only work on windows.

also i think that the best way to use windows was installing openssh
from cygwin and then using putty in fullscreen to connect to localhost.

but anyway.. after 14 years without using it, i can only say that i
would love to see how microsoft dies and stops releasing crappy hardware
and software (surface and winphone are the ultimate abomination), and
they didnt stopped their monopolistic practices imposing their by
pushing money software to governments and hardware manufacturers... tell
me how many laptops can you buy on a phisical store that didnt come with
windows preinstalled. (for example)

fuck that shit

--pancake
Received on Thu Apr 11 2013 - 19:58:31 CEST