Re: 21.x feature request: windows shortcut support

[David Masterson]

>>>>> Eli Zaretskii writes:

> On 15 Oct 2001, David Masterson wrote:

>> How much "other information" is there?

> Not much.  Apart of what I mentioned, there's the file's directory,
> and that's about it.

Hmmm.  Kai and RMS suggest that a lot of stuff is kept in buffer local
variables, but you're saying not much.  Even so, given the scenario I
put in a reply to RMS's message, perhaps this shortcut data doesn't
need to be kept in a side-list (like buffer local variables), it can
be processed from the file as necessary.

> You seem to assume that the shortcut's contents is static and, once
> recorded in the shortcut, never changes.  But that's not true: the
> shortcut's target and other attributes can change outside Emacs's
> control, in which case the info Emacs holds will be stale.

If you're editting the shortcut file, then this might be an issue (in
the same sense as any other file being changed under you).  If you're
simply reading thru the shortcut to the referred file, then, after the
resolution, who cares?

> That's true, but going through `start' introduces more problems than
> it solves (for example, redirection of standard handles will not work
> with some programs).  Emacs could simply do the necessary magic to
> invoke the target itself, without relying on `start'.  That's a
> localized change in a single low-level function specific to the
> Windows port; no need to change the buffer object or any other Emacs
> data structure.

Fine by me.  I don't know the internals of Emacs or Windows well
enough to know what's best.  I'm just coalescing some ideas that I've
seen mentioned here.

> In other words, supporting invocation of programs through shortcuts is
> easy; it's the other kinds of support that are much harder.  My
> impression was that the OP asked for such support everywhere in Emacs
> where we deal with file names.

Not even Windows programs support shortcuts well everywhere they deal
with filenames.  For instance, while I believe most Windows programs
will read-thru a shortcut when opening a file, I don't think they
write-thru a shortcut when saving a file.  There's no reason that
Emacs needs to do anymore than other Windows programs.

See my reply to RMS.

-- 
David Masterson                dmaster AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA