On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 07:53:41PM -0400, Joost Verburg wrote: > On 6/17/2010 5:17 PM, Enrico Forestieri wrote: >> I don't know whether Windows 7 broke something in this respect, but once >> the console is hidden, launching external applications should not pop up >> any console windows. It is so at least with Vista. > > The problem is that the application to launch LyX (which hides the > console) is different from LyX itself. Just like on Mac OS X, this > doesn't work with the Windows 7 taskbar. It makes it impossible to pin > the icon.
So, this patch does not help in this respect, as the launcher is needed for hiding the initial console that would otherwise open. I think that the solution could be hiding the console from inside LyX itself. Once there was code for doing that, but I don't remember anymore why it was nuked. >> I think this is a step backward, as much as the introduction of QProcess. >> It is a step backward because until now batch files could be executed >> using runCommand(), but with your proposed patch they would not anymore. > > All the external converts are already being called using ForkedCalls, so > I don't think this will make any difference. Probably, but going further in the wrong direction is not clever. > But you can still use batch files, right? Just launch the command line > interpreter. Something like cmd.exe /c batchfile.bat. You're missing the point. On Windows every application has its bin folder and you should add it to the PATH in order to spot the application in LyX. In this way, the PATH can become monstrously long and it is a nuisance. You could instead add a single directory to the PATH and put batch files in this directory that simply execute the right application. I was doing that before QProcess, but now it is no more possible. Another point is that if you want to perform some further processing when using a given converter, you could put a batch file with same name earlier in the PATH. Maybe you want to simply test what parameters are passed or whatever. When you're done, you could simply rename your batch file and the normal processing is restored. Now, instead, you have to edit the preferences and add "cmd /c" here and there, hoping that you get right the way you have to quote the parameters (and in some cases it is very difficult to get it right, believe me). I don't remember having any particular problem without QProcess, but I have many after its introduction. Anyway, almost nobody on Windows uses the command line (or even knows what it is), so only some expert user may suffer from this. As I already said, there's luckily a choice, so if the majority wants that the native Windows version behaves like that, please go ahead. -- Enrico
