rfe: seamless windows integration

[Harold L Hunt II]

Jack Tanner wrote:

> Harold L Hunt II wrote:
> 
>> Interesting idea.  Probably the easiest thing to do here would be to 
>> either create a list of 'term' programs or 'non-term' programs along 
>> with a list of excluded programs.  Of course, we would want to figure 
>> out which list, 'term' or 'non-term', was going to be shortest before 
>> deciding which to make.
>>
>> To skirt the setup "Create Cygwin/XFree86 icons?" step, we could 
>> simply stuff the above lists and a modified version of your script in 
>> a new package called, for example, 
>> XFree86-start-menu-icons-4.3.0-1.tar.bz2.
> 
> 
> I would go a step further. As Brian (and others) have pointed out, the 
> default X install contains a bunch of programs that aren't really 
> "important", e.g., xlogo. Creating a huge list of them in the start menu 
> would indeed be "clutter", and I concede that what I initially suggested 
> (shortcuts for all clients) would be silly. I don't know the 
> functionality of 90% of what's in /usr/X11R6/bin/*.exe, but I'm sure 
> some things are used more widely than others, and some are more and some 
> less appropriate for the start menu.
> 

Yes, most of the programs would go in the 'exclude' list.

> Here's what would be useful, though: if I install a Cygwin-ized Emacs, 
> for example, there should be a shortcut for it in the start menu. 
> Granted, I should be taking this request to Emacs' packagers, but the 
> folks here have unique expertise suited to this task, and perhaps could 
> work with apps' packagers to provide this functionality.
> 
> It would be a bad idea to install icons for apps that aren't there, 
> though, and so I'm tempted to argue against a 
> XFree86-start-menu-icons-4.3.0-1.tar.bz2. On the other hand, there may 
> be a smart way of writing the scripts for that tarball, such that a 
> particular icon is installed only if the app is actually present. This 
> way Emacs and all the other packages wouldn't have to be altered.
> 

I think the package should probably be called 'XFree86-bin-icons', that 
way it is clear that you are installing icons only for the programs in 
XFree86-bin.  I don't want this package to have to be updated every time 
someone makes a new package for Cygwin/XFree86 that might need an icon. 
  This was new packages could have their own -icons package if they 
chose to do so.  This also splits the maintenace of the icons to the 
current maintainers of each Cygwin/XFree86 package, which is very important.

> The rule of thumb for what's a good application to add to the start menu 
> could be this: if you use it as a GUI, and you can get reasonable 
> mileage out of the app without passing varying parameters on start up, 
> it should have a shortcut. (Filename parameters would be easy exception 
> to pass using the standard windows technique of drag-and-drop to start 
> menu.)

Of course.

Harold