[REBOL] Windows Shell: was RE: Re: newbie - How to
From: bry:itnisk at: 24-Jun-2003 10:25
>It would be fun for rebol to print in a shell... If everyone says
windows >has no shell, then why does python and many other applications
print right >in the command prompt they are run from?
Windows most definitely has a shell, Explorer is the default graphical
interface to this shell, Windows being a graphical system it is
appropriate that its shell has a graphical interface.
One can however shift explorer out with another interface to the shell,
here for example is a free open source one:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fwshell/ there are a number of these
around. One can extend the shell by a number of ways, one intensive but
powerful method is through namespace extensions to the shell:
http://www.codeproject.com/shell/shlext.asp I have done a little work in
this area and found it hard going, mainly as c++ is not my favorite
language.
>why couldnt reboltech simply add some winshell:// port or what have
you...?
This goes back to my discussion a long time ago about Asynchronous
Pluggable Protocols, which I unfortunately don't think I explained well:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/networking/p
luggable/overview/overview.asp , APPs can be browsed with browse from
Rebol however there is no read etc. they could be used to solve some
problems of integration with the Windows system. I'm writing an article
on APPs in the next couple weeks and using Rebol as an example, the idea
being passing in rebol code from an APP url that gets evaluated, much as
bookmarklets allow one to pass in javascript code via the javascript:
APP.
A propos printing, Network printers have their own namespace in the
windows shell as a virtual object, Special Folders such as the My
Network Places are in fact implemented as extensions to the shell.
