[Openmcl-devel] CCL on Windows

Mon Oct 1 16:35:36 PDT 2012

On Oct 1, 2012, at 1:19 PM, Ron Garret wrote:

> Thanks!
> 
> The problem turned out to be this: if you double-click on a zip file, Windows will open up a window that displays the contents of the zip file.  If you try to run ccl out of this window, it doesn't work.  If you explicitly unpack the zip file first and then run ccl out of the resulting folder then it works.
> 
> So CCL is running, on to the next question: if I want to do some UI-ish thing in CCL on OS X then I use the ObjC bridge to call Cocoa functions.  What is the equivalent concept on Windows?  Do I use the FFI to call the Win32 API?  Or is there some higher level library that I can use that lets me do something like (make-instance 'window)?  Is there any Windows UI sample code or documentation?

If you use Cocotron then you can have cross platform development: http://code.google.com/p/xmlisp/

You could just use the Win32 api but I think this would be a pretty hellish starting point to get something real going. 

Cocotron has advanced nicely (and even seems to work with Windows 8). 

Alex

> 
> rg
> 
> On Oct 1, 2012, at 11:54 AM, Gary Byers wrote:
> 
>> You -can- usually run a Windows command-line application in its own "console"
>> window by double-clicking on it; if you do that and see an apparent error message
>> flash by before that console window closes, then there's a fairly  good chance
>> that that error message would persist if you ran CCL in a Windows command shell
>> (running "cmd.exe" runs the Windows shell - and programs that it invokes - in
>> a console window that'll stick around until cmd.exe exits.)
>> 
>> CCL is supposed to run on XP or later.  XP was 32-bit only during most of its
>> lifetime, but for a while a 64-bit OEM version of XP was preinstalled on some
>> 64-bit machines.
>> 
>> Coffee and laptops being natural enemies, I don't think that I have a
>> working copy of XP anymore, but don't remember us having knowingly broken
>> XP support.
>> 
>> Older Windows versions are definitely not supported: CCL depends on a
>> feature ("vectored exception handling") that was introduced in XP.
>> Code checks the OS version fairly early in the startup process and prints
>> an error message if it concludes that the OS is too old; it's possible
>> that that error message is what flashes across your screen.
>> 
>> On Mon, 1 Oct 2012, Bill St. Clair wrote:
>> 
>>> http://www.sliksvn.com/en/download is a workable command-line
>>> Subversion client for Windows. Cygwin also has one you can install,
>>> for its nice Bash shell. I do Windows development, when I have to,
>>> with Slime in http://ntemacs.sourceforge.net/
>>> 
>>> Windows DOES have a DOS shell. Reachable by typing "command" in the
>>> search box in the Windows menu, or by m-x shell in Emacs. A quick
>>> google search revealed:
>>> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/32-bit-and-64-bit-Windows-frequently-asked-questions
>>> . "systeminfo" will tell you from a DOS prompt.
>>> 
>>> -Bill
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 2:12 PM, Ron Garret <ron at flownet.com> wrote:
>>>> I'm trying to help someone with a CCL project that they have to deliver on Windows, so I held my nose, fired up Parallels, and downloaded ccl-1.8-windowsx86.zip.  I fired it up, it briefly flashed a window on the screen which promptly vanished without a trace.
>>>> 
>>>> Ah, I said to myself, now I remember why I don't use Windows.
>>>> 
>>>> But I really would like to be able to help people who want to run CCL on Windows, so I'm kind of morbidly curious about how one goes about debugging problems like this.  When it comes to Windows, I am completely at sea.  I have never done any Windows development.  I have never used Windows for more than an hour or so at a time (which is about all I can take).  I'm at a conceptual loss, a complete and utter newbie.  How do you even get started when you don't have a shell?  That is not a rhetorical question by the way.  How do I run SVN?  How do I figure out what version of Windows I'm running?  How can I tell if I'm running 32 or 64 bit?  I know it's some ancient version of XP running under Parallels.  Is CCL even expected to work?
>>>> 
>>>> OMG, Windows is truly hellish.  I just tried to find a Windows binary SVN installer.  After several blind alleys I finally found the Apache SVN site which had half a dozen choices of binaries maintained by volunteers.  I picked one at random, and it crashed IE.  I tried Chrome.  It didn't work (it just gives me an hourglass no matter what I do -- even Settings won't come up).  Tried FireFox.  It worked, got a SVN binary installer package, ran it, it worked.  But the only thing it seems to have installed is documentation and license files.  There's no hint of a SVN executable anywhere.  Finally found the executable (I guess they hide it as a sort of filter to insure that you can't run it unless you have a certain minimal level of technical expertise), and it does the same flashy-crashy thing as CCL.    How does anyone put up with this shit?  (Now THAT is a rhetorical question.)
>>>> 
>>>> Anyway, if someone could point me in the right direction I would be most grateful.
>>>> 
>>>> rg
>>>> 
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> 
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Prof. Alexander Repenning

University of Colorado
Computer Science Department
Boulder, CO 80309-430

vCard: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~ralex/AlexanderRepenning.vcf

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