Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[cyg Simple]

The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
--help function.  No comments in the source code.  Only a code.google
page for mintty[1] was beneficial to allow me to understand it and then
it was a late entry comment that sort of explained the purpose.  I will
revisit this issue with a source code patch to add comments.

[1]https://code.google.com/archive/p/mintty/issues/39

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cyg Simple

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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[Thomas Wolff]

Am 13.08.2018 um 01:53 schrieb cyg Simple:
> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
> --help function.  No comments in the source code.  Only a code.google
> page for mintty[1] was beneficial to allow me to understand it and then
> it was a late entry comment that sort of explained the purpose.  I will
> revisit this issue with a source code patch to add comments.
>
> [1]https://code.google.com/archive/p/mintty/issues/39
For the records, that issue is now @ 
https://github.com/mintty/mintty/issues/39

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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
> --help function.

cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
user docs?  The documentation is in the source for the interested
dev:

https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/cygwin/fhandler_console.cc;hb=HEAD#l2521


Corinna

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Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[Andy Moreton]

On Mon 13 Aug 2018, Corinna Vinschen wrote:

> On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
>> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
>> --help function.
>
> cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
> user docs?

It is helpful to users to have a --help option that tells them that this
is an internal tool that they should not be fiddling with, and a brief
description of what it is for.

    AndyM


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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Aug 13 12:11, Andy Moreton wrote:
> On Mon 13 Aug 2018, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> 
> > On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
> >> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
> >> --help function.
> >
> > cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
> > user docs?
> 
> It is helpful to users to have a --help option that tells them that this
> is an internal tool that they should not be fiddling with, and a brief
> description of what it is for.

I don't think so, but if you like, send a patch to the cygwin-patches ML.


Corinna

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Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[cyg Simple]

On 8/13/2018 3:53 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
>> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
>> --help function.
> 
> cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
> user docs?  The documentation is in the source for the interested
> dev:
> 
> https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/cygwin/fhandler_console.cc;hb=HEAD#l2521
> 

How the hell am I supposed to find that by looking at
cygwin-console-helper.cc?

https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/utils/cygwin-console-helper.cc;hb=cea37699d1d7f46396323a1997ccd54148517a62

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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Aug 13 08:57, cyg Simple wrote:
> On 8/13/2018 3:53 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> > On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
> >> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
> >> --help function.
> > 
> > cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
> > user docs?  The documentation is in the source for the interested
> > dev:
> > 
> > https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/cygwin/fhandler_console.cc;hb=HEAD#l2521
> > 
> 
> How the hell am I supposed to find that by looking at
> cygwin-console-helper.cc?

You aren't.  The cygwin-console-helper solution is under-the-hood stuff,
a solution for a problem which was supposed to be not user visible.
Because, in this case user visible means it doesn't work as desired.


Corinna

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Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
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Re: Documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe

[cyg Simple]

On 8/13/2018 10:45 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Aug 13 08:57, cyg Simple wrote:
>> On 8/13/2018 3:53 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>>> On Aug 12 19:53, cyg Simple wrote:
>>>> The documentation for cygwin-console-helper.exe is missing, not even a
>>>> --help function.
>>>
>>> cygwin-console-helper.exe is not for the user to use, so why add
>>> user docs?  The documentation is in the source for the interested
>>> dev:
>>>
>>> https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/cygwin/fhandler_console.cc;hb=HEAD#l2521
>>>
>>
>> How the hell am I supposed to find that by looking at
>> cygwin-console-helper.cc?
> 
> You aren't.  

But telling me something in the source code would have probably
prevented me from asking.  I don't think --help is helpful in this case
but words in comments about the reasoning for the executable is and
should always be a requirement.  What happens when those who know move
on to something better; then those that are left behind have to struggle
to find the reasons.

> The cygwin-console-helper solution is under-the-hood stuff,
> a solution for a problem which was supposed to be not user visible.

So perhaps the fact that it is user visible is the problem.  Perhaps it
should move to somewhere like /usr/libexec.

> Because, in this case user visible means it doesn't work as desired.

Well it works, it is a library helper app that hides the console of a
windowed app.  It shouldn't be in the user application space.  As it is,
it is in the open for the user to dwell on what is this app, it does
nothing useful when I run it from the console; I might as well delete
it.  Oh no, now my mintty has a console attached to every window.

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cyg Simple

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