About

This is a generator for the Windows registry files (.reg) files which:

• integrates scripting languages (ruby, perl, python, ...) of cygwin to windows desktop
• integrates Emacs to Windows desktop
• helps to integrate portable applications to Windows Desktop ( Dia example included )

Distributed under MIT Licence Copyright (c) 2016,2017 Tomas Jura

Icon images licences are separate.

Installation Requirements

cygwin packages

The installation requires the following cygwin packages:

• make
• m4 - m4 templates are core of this package
• sed - implicit in standard cygwin installtion
• iconv -
• od - octal dump program
• imagemagic - optional for icon building

.NET C# compiler

There is written a small .NET application in C# which signals to windows applications that file association/icons are changed. To compile it you need a c# compiler which is proably present in your computer. Search for the csc.exe under path C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64. If not available, you will have to logout and login to see the registry changes in file explorer after installation.

Concept

The .reg files generation

The .reg file is a text file (encoded as UTF-16). It is a simple recipie how to add or remove or change the registry keys. They are processed by reg.exe command which is included in the default windows installation and also by regedit program.

M4 is a macro processor for text files. The .reg.m4 is a .reg file with m4 macros which provide:

• directives to generate uninstall .reg script
• association of the extension, with a program ( like .pl with perl.exe )
• defines text names of some registry constants ( see file flags.m4 )
• provides macros for simple looping over a list and expanding it in a block of text

The basic .reg file generation workflow is (config.m4 + <file>.reg.m4 ) => <file>.reg

And installation <file>.reg => reg.exe <file>.reg

Icons

There are icons for common file types (.rb, py, .pl, .C, ... ) are prepared from images. The icons are not necessary to install .reg files. But makes the desktop nicer.

Configuration

The basic configuration is made in the file config.m4. The m4 macroprocessor uses by default for quoting strings characters ``` and'``. Which is good, because it does not interfere with quotes " used for strings in `.reg` files. So `` `this is quoted string in m4' ``.

# are comments in m4

The \ character in .reg and also .reg.m4 files must be escaped by \ so it is written as \\.

Keep all source files in encoding utf-8 with LF (0x0A) line ends when modifying sources ( including Makefile ).

Configuration

Makefile

Edit file Makefile and configure the following variables:

CSC

Modify the CSC variable to point to your csc.exe. Probably the provided path to csc.exe will be sufficient.

MODULES

Modify the MODULES variable to contain modules you want. By default all possible .reg files are generated and installed. Module roughly corresponds to one programming language (perl,ruby,sed ...) in cygwin Example: MODULES="ruby perl python" to list modules run ls *.reg.m4

config.m4

SWCLASSES

select either HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes according to whether you are doing configuration to self or all users. If unsure use the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.

ICON_DIR

Icon directory where the icons will be installed. This path is also used in .reg.m4 file to locate icons. If unsure let the default one CYGWIN_PATH\\usr\\local\\share\\icons.

EMACS_IS_DEFAULT_FOR_TEXTFILES

Comment this if you do not want Emacs to became the default text editor for all text files. This is important, if Emacs is not your favourite editor!

TODO: check/add support editors as default:

• gvim
• PSPad
• Notepad++

Cygwin configuration

CYGWIN_PATH

A path to your cygwin installation

CYGWIN_PROGID

A basic key name base for cygwin programs. Select one of cygwin32 or cygwin64. Can be any string without spaces.

SCRIPT_EDITOR

A command to open a (ruby/perl/...) script in your editor. Typicaly "C:\Program Files\PSPad\pspad.exe", or something like this. Include %1 parameter, which represents the file requested for opening. Quoting the %1 by " seems to be a good idea. The " and \ must be escaped by \.

A default SCRIPT_EDITOR is Emacs which is not a good choose for everyone. PSPad or Notepad++ can be a better choice for Windows users.

EDITOR

An environment variable EDITOR will be setup for Emacs. Simply skip if you do not want to install Emacs registry files.

CONTEXT_MENU

A macro which expands to a label in context menu. It accepts one argument - represented by $1 - the name of program/action. Select one of the CygWin32 $1 or CygWin64 $1 according to your cygwin version installation.

Emacs configuration (config.m4 file)

The explicit Emacs configuration is necessary only if you want to use other Emacs then the Cygwin Emacs (like NT Emacs). The default configuration is for Cygwin Emacs W32 (gui) version.

EMACS_BIN_DIR

Directory where you emacs.exe lives

EMACS_ICON

Icon file (.exe,.dll,.ico ) for Emacs. Also use the resource ID separated by comma.

EMACS_FLAVOUR

Simple string indentifing Emacs ( NT, Lucid ) among other installed emacses.

EMACS_VERSION

Optional, usefull only if several Emacs versions are installed.

Installation

creating "run" wrappers

The program run starts a program with cmd window hidden. If copied under name runprogram, then it runs the program with cmd window hidden.

In cygwin shell run make install_runners to create wrappers

Creating .reg files

In cygwin shell run in the root project directory

make all You should see the required .reg files. If you have modified the source files (.reg.m4), check them in text editor before installation.

Applying to registry

make all Instals your selected .reg files defined by MODULES variable

After installation

Preserve uninstall_* files

Save your config file at save place. You never know when you will need the uninstall files.

PATHEXT

Modify your environment variable PATHEXT and set it as %PATHEXT%;.SH;.ZSH;.BASH;.RB;.PL;.PY;.TCL which allows you run the scripts in ruby,perl,python,tcl,Shell,ZShell,Bash without writing extension in cmd.exe. Alternativelly you can run command setx PATHEXT ^%PATHEXT^%;.SH;.ZSH;.BASH;.RB;.PL;.PY;.TCL in the command line prompt.

FAQ

Emacs shows no windows in Windows 10

Cygwin's emacs-w32 do not show new frames unless the emacsclient is in the wait mode (see switch -n in the emacsclient manual).

Workaround is to use Native Emacs instead of Cygwin Emacs. or add the following code into .emacs

(unless (equal (terminal-name (get-device-terminal nil)) "w32")
  (make-frame-on-display "w32")
  (delete-terminal (car (terminal-list)))
  )