RE: X client wrapper for Win apps?

[Stuart Adamson <stuart dot adamson at evolution dot net>]

> From: Jehan [mailto:nahor@bravobrava.com]
> Stuart Adamson wrote:
> > Maybe the way forward is to filter calls to user32.dll 
> (where most of the
> > basic
> > windowing functions end up).  By filtering I mean renaming 
> user32.dll to
> > user32-real.dll and writing your own user32.dll which 
> either sends requests
> > to
> > X11 or to user32-real.dll, depending on the process id of 
> the requesting
> > process.
> 
> Oh nice! I'll then look forward to the new Windows service 
> pack and the 
> number of new posts in the mailing about XFree being broken after the 
> upgrade.

But it won't. The interface to user32.dll of existing apps will remain the
same
(the service pack doesn't change apps code does it) hence any service packs 
shouldn't break this filtering.

Take a look a feszer from l0pft with filters msvcrt.dll. This works on winnt
sp4,
winnt sp5, winnt sp6a and win2000sp2sr1.


I see something like 

    A small cygwin X program which you invoke with the win32 program as its
argument.
    The cygwin program executes the win32 program, registers itself and the
id of the
    win32 program with our user32.dll filter.
    When the win32 app makes GDI calls to user32.dll, these get forwarded to
our cygwin
    program which converts them into X calls and sends them to your X
server.

    So, the start outlook you would do something like "wrapX11 outlook.exe"


 
> But I have a better idea, replace the kernel32.dll with our own that 
> will convert Windows calls into a Linux/BSD/Un*x calls. That way, 
> instead of having Windows window showing in Xfree running in Windows, 
> you'll just have Windows on top of Xfree. We would also have 
> a perfect 
> Unix layer for Windows then, we won't need Cygwin anymore, we 
> would use 
> Linux/BSD/Un*x directly. It will also add to the 
> security/performance/whatever.

Now you're just being silly ;)


Stuart - okay, so I've had a pint or five tonight