Re: 21.x feature request: windows shortcut support

[Jason Rumney]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     I'm not sure I understand. Windows itself uses file extensions to
>     determine the file type. If .mailcap does not have the .lnk extension,
>     then even Explorer will not recognize it as a shortcut, so there is no
>     point in Emacs recognizing it as such.
> 
> If shortcuts are used only for executing a file,

I am not sure that is correct. It may be Microsoft's design that they
are only intended to be double-clicked with a mouse in order to execute
the default application for a shortcut's target, but I see no reason
why we should restrict Emacs to such a narrow use.

> then Emacs could handle it by specifying the optional suffix when
> calling openp.

I think there are two separate issues here. One is that Windows
normally hides the .lnk suffix, so it may be friendlier to users to
handle shortcuts without the need to specify the .lnk extension.
If I'm not mistaken, that is what your suggestion above relates to.

But before we solve that problem, we need to solve the problem that
Emacs currently does not do anything useful if a shortcut is opened
(it opens the binary shortcut file itself, where a more useful thing
would be to open the target of the shortcut). I don't think this can
be solved entirely within openp. If a shortcut is to a directory for
example, it might be useful during completion to follow it as if it
were a soft link.

-- 
Jason Rumney