Re: Are there Windows users of cons?

[Johan Holmberg]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2001, Zachary Deretsky wrote:
>
> Are there other Windows users of cons?
>

I use Cons regularly on NT4.
And Cons on Win32 has definitely become better during the time I've
used it. So I think it is a bit strange to say

> There is a clear message from the cons maintainers:
> "WINDOWS USERS GET LOST!"
>

Of course there is still room for improvement, but the things that
has bothered me most lately are problems with ActivePerl rather than
Cons itself (the "PATH", and "Ctrl-C" problems I've mentioned before
on the list).

I've never used the Link command in Cons on NT, so I guess I've
missed those problems. I've also written the extension module
Cons::Plus that Gary Oberbrunner mentioned (nice to know there is at
least *one* user out there beside myself :-) ).
That module solved most important problems I had with Cons on Win32:
    - to find the PATH to Visual C++ automatically
    - to support several languages beside C/C++ (RC-files, ...)
    - place .OBJ and .EXE files in different directories without
      relying on the "Link" command.


I haven't used Greg Spencers modules, but I'm curious to know what
the current problems are with those modules:

 1) doesn't ConsExtensions.pl work at all with current versions of
    Cons ?

 2) if not, are changes needed in ConsExtensions.pl only, or are
    changes needed in Cons itself ?

 3) is ConsExtensions.pl "abandoned" by Greg, or has he plans to
    maintain it (if any Cons specific problems in 2) are solved)


> Please respond to this message and request speedy incorporation of existing
> Windows-related fixes into the current code plus real-time Windows support
> in the future.
>

>From looking at Greg's code, it seems that a lot of "knowledge"
(eg. about Visual C++) is built into that code.

I don't think it is reasonable to *require* that all this should be
"supported", especially if the maintainers are not using that code
themselves.

Wouldn't it be enough if ConsExtensions.pl could continue to "live"
as an extension ?  But that would of course require that someone
"maintained" it after Gregs initial release (see question 3 above).


/Johan Holmberg