Re: w32 does not have emacsclient/server - getting paper size

[David Kastrup]

Lennart Borgman <address@hidden> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
>
>>So unless the registry access is required for implementing some
>>cross-platform functionality, there is no motivation to add it into
>>Emacs because that would only encourage unportable applications.
>>
>>The right way to go about this is first to create an API that is
>>useful across operating systems.  Then this API can be filled with
>>life.  It would appear that on Posix system, this would entail a
>>read-only interface into setlocale(3), and maybe on w32 reading
>>registry keys.  Whether those interfaces should be exposed to Lisp,
>>is a different question.  It would make sense to define this stuff
>>with the Posix semantics, and then let w32-specific code translate
>>this into the respective registry reading calls.
>
> Yes, I agree.  On w32 I think at least new users would expect this
> to work.

Posix queries?  Unlikely.  Really, you should for a change try
spelling out what you mean.

> If we want them to switch to GNU/Linux then I believe we should
> anticipate that they will expect this on GNU/Linux too. If you think
> this is the right way to go then I would be glad if you (or someone
> else) did this for Posix systems. Then I (or someone else) will
> implement this on w32 because at least I feel it is the right way to
> go.

Look, it is getting annoying.  You have not _once_ in this whole
thread clearly spelled out _what_ your problem is and what you want
done.  You only ever talk about "this" being desirable and so on
without ever bothering specifying what "this" is supposed to be and
why it would be interested.

In all of your 20-something post long tirade about the poor persecuted
w32 users, I am still missing a problem description.  Something along
the lines of:

    For this-and-that application, it would be important for Emacs to
    be able to query the operating system's idea of the system paper
    size.  I propose a function getting the following arguments and
    returning the following values.  This should be a part of this and
    that module.  To implement it on w32 would require this and that
    functionality.  I don't know how this would be done on Posix.

>>What capability?  Reading the registry?  Don't be silly.  Querying
>>the paper size?  Well, I don't see why that omission should be less
>>of a problem on a Unix-like operating system.
>>
> Fine, then we could perhaps have a common goal in this small but not
> unimportant detail. It is not unimportant since it is part of a
> bigger picture concerning the integration with the OS that new users
> probably do expect.

The paper size is part of a bigger picture concerning the integration
with the OS?

Could you stop throwing around buzzwords and simply come up with a few
actual examples of what you are talking about in the first place?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum