[RFC] Idea how to fix PATH (and other) problems

[Ralf Habacker]

Christian Ehrlicher schrieb:
> Ralf Habacker schrieb:
>> Christian Ehrlicher schrieb:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Due to recent discussions on k-c-d where to put shared libs on 
>>> win32, I thougt it would be nice to think about what else is 
>>> different on win32 / where we have to take care of:
>>>
>>> - we have to modify the PATH env var - this makes it impossible to 
>>> move around our install dir
>>> - we have to take care that we use the correct dependency libs
>>> - we've two different compilers which are not ABI compatible
>>> - the application icon is not included in the executable because 
>>> it's handled totally different on non win32
>>>
>>> All this makes it hard for a normal user to use kde apps on win32.
>>>
>>> My idea is to create a wrapper executable which handles all the 
>>> things above for us. This wrapper is merged with the executable on 
>>> install time and is written with pure win32 api to avoid 
>>> dependencies. On execution the wrapper sets up all things needed to 
>>> execute the programm (maybe saving some settings in the registry to 
>>> avoid delays on the next run). It sets up the correct PATH, looks if 
>>> all our dep libs are available (in the path) and also knows if it's 
>>> a mingw or msvc binary (and therefore set the path to 
>>> kde4-install/lib/msvc or kde4-install/lib/mingw).
>>> After all is done, the real executable is executed with 
>>> CreateProcess directly from the memory - like a packer for 
>>> executables. When the app is crashing, it should also be possible to 
>>> get some more informations because we launched the app and therefore 
>>> can play Dr.Watson.
>>>
>>> Alex: is it possible to execute a programm on install time which 
>>> merges the wrapper and the executable? Or do we loose the ability to 
>>> install only newer files? Maybe we have to move it to link time - 
>>> but do we have access to the app icon then?
>>>
>>>
>>> Any comments?
>>>   
>> Yes, see append kwrapper, which could be used from windows 
>> startmenus. It takes the application to run as parameter. This could 
>> be used as target in startmenu links, so there would be not need to 
>> create a wrapper for every application.
>>
> I don't want an additional application
????  kde on unix has also a kwrapper application what is wrong with 
using such a wrapper in the start menu ?
Ralf