Hello,
Currently the emacsclientw (the non-console version of Win32 emacs client) pops up a modal message box if emacs server is not running even if there is an alternate specified. This makes the -a option (with or without an argument) somewhat useless, since the user is greeted by a modal message box, interrupting the workflow.
The attached patch supresses the modal message box (only in Win32 and only in the non-console client) if there is an alternate editor specified - the user will only get an error message if the alternative fails too.
The patch is produced against today's emacs master.
Sincerely yours,
Evgeny
emacsclient.patch