[Wine]Help the wine project

Michael Chang michael at cherryblossom.homelinux.com
Fri Jul 30 12:12:28 CDT 2004


On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 14:12:50 +1000, Joshua Crawford  
<mortarn_lists at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> * Ivan Leo Puoti <puoti at inwind.it> [2004-07-28 19:14 +0200]:
>> The wine developers have created a test sistem to check if wine works
>> like microsoft windows, but more users are needed to run the tests.
[snip]
> I installed this on a windows 98se box. I can't say I like having the DOS
> window open all the time (it's ugly). Can this not be written as a  
> windows programme, and sit in the system tray?
Yes.  I don't know how, but I know it's possible.  You'd have to probably
find example code that allows this -- writing that kind of thing requires
knowledge of the Windows API for the systray.  I think.  Maybe send this
request to wine-devel?  I don't know (how).  One thing to point out though  
-
if it ran in the system tray, then you wouldn't be able to run it within
wine.  (Yes, I know that sounds stupid...)

Also, technically, it's not a "DOS" box, although it's the same kind of
thing.  C/C++ programs (as well as many other programming languages) use
"console input/output" as their input/output -- which makes a "dos box"
appear when they're run under windows.  Many seemingly dos programs that
run under Windows are 32-bit, and as such are Windows console, not DOS
programs.  (Linux just makes this output go to the console the program
is being used on, or something like that.)   Efforts to replace this
with a GUI of any sort (i.e. systray, or just a regular one, even in
something like Tk...) would involve actually writing a complete
gui, then removing the dos box after testing of the gui was done.
(Otherwise you'd have issues with secret problems possibly capable
destroying your Windows installation and no way to warn the user.)
That kind of design would take time away from the wine development
team... but, if anyone wants to dedicate time to modify the source as
such, I see no reason not to.

Finally, I'd like to mention a possible temorary workaround -- if you have
the "dos box"'s "toolbar" enabled, in the top left corner, there's a  
drop-down
box in which you can change the font used internally.  (It could also be  
changed
through right-clicking the icon in the top-left corner and looking through
the properties dialog, but I'm not sure how long those changes take to take
effect and/or stay effective.)  Set it to a font size you can read (or  
whatever
"font" you prefer, it's not important) - it doesn't matter which as long as
you don't set it to "Auto".  Then, set it so that it's a resiziable window.
You then take the window, and resize it from the lower right corner, to the
top-left corner, until all you see is a very small portion of toolbar.
It still takes space on the systray (unfortunately) but it now should take
up less space on the desktop.  Hope this helps, if at all.

> Also, during the installation process, after I entered my email address,  
> the installer removed what it called 'invalid characters' - i.e.,  
> underscores.
> All my main email addresses contain underscores, so I was forced to  
> enter an old one that is not very reliable.

How'd this happen?  Underscores are very much valid characters in e-mails.
Was the installation check only accepting alpha-numeric characters as
the user part of the e-mail?  Dashes should also be acceptable, in both
the username and the domain name.  (Otherwise, how could we send e-mail
to the "wine-users" account of the mail server so the mailman service
could get to them?)

Try sending these requests to wine-devel, although they are technically
only cosmetic changes, they may attract more users to try and join
the wine development and testing teams, and increase the user base.

-- 
~Michael Chang



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