[Freemint-list] Handling of PRGs/APPs which console output

[Jo Even Skarstein]

On lø., 2017-01-07 at 23:23 +1000, Miro Kropáček wrote:
> As soon as we agree that we do want to make a change to the kernel
> and/or xaaes, we're free to implement any cool feature. The basic
> problem here is that Jo & the gang ;) refuses to acknowledge this as
> an OS problem to solve, they want to run a tool or two only (and you
> can't do your proposed changes without kernel support).

First of all, let me make it clear that I don't find joy in messing up
mine or others screen ;) But your fix is IMO wrong. It supresses all
console output UNLESS the user specifically allow it for a particular
application, and when (s)he does that there will always be a
console/shell window open for that particular application.

However, this is something that will only be used when the user is aware
of the existence of console output from a particular application, e.g.
when running a debug build. In the normal case no such window will be
opened, and any console output is just eaten.

I also honestly don't see how editing a configuration file by hand is
any easier for the novice than autostarting a small program that does
pretty much the same thing.

I think your modifications to TosWin2 is much better, since then the
output is atleast buffered and available for the user that is actually
aware of what's going on.

Yes, the current behaviour can be improved. But IMO your suggestion is
more a hack than a proper solution.

One possible - and IMO better - solution would be something like this:

Whenever an AES process is started, XaAES creates a pipe and redirects
the child process' stdin/stdout to this pipe. *If* the application
writes anything to that pipe, XaAES will know and it will of course know
which application. XaAES then alerts the user in some way, e.g. by
changing the colour of the menu bar, display a window without stealing
keyboard focus, displaying an icon in the menu bar or whatever. When/if
the user interacts with this notification, XaAES runs a "console"
program (could be TosWin2 for that matter) that inherits the pipe
handles from XaAES and shows the output from the program. Features like
logging etc can be added to this program.

Now nothing is ever displayed on the screen, atleast not from the AES
and the AES clients. The user is notified if there is any output, and
will have the possibility to see what's actually happening.

Jo Even