[M3devel] more info on ticket 1082 wrt start /wait

Fri Mar 12 04:37:48 CET 2010

Jay:  Yes, you said it better than I did.  The problem is with the browser behavior, not with START /WAIT.

I've implemented a quick-fix in the source code to change the default behavior on Windows to "return FALSE" on the "start_browser" function instead of "return TRUE".  That way, regardless of whether or not the browser exits right away, CM3IDE will stay running until it is manually terminated via CTRL-C in its console output window.

(Note: "return TRUE" means that CM3IDE will terminate when the browser terminates, whereas "return FALSE" means that CM3IDE will stay running even after the browser terminates.  On a server system where you have multiple network clients connecting to the single CM3IDE instance running on the server, you would always want to use "return FALSE".  Likewise, on a Unix system where you start CM3IDE as a background process when the system boots, you would want to use "return FALSE".)

I am already thinking of alternate solutions and an easy way for CM3IDE to limit itself to a single instance.  I'll work on polishing these up in the next few days, but the quick-fix should solve the immediate problem for now.

Regards,
Randy

From: jayk123 at hotmail.com [mailto:jayk123 at hotmail.com] On Behalf Of Jay K
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 9:50 PM
To: Coleburn, Randy; m3devel
Subject: RE: [M3devel] more info on ticket 1082 wrt start /wait

Start /wait is always doing the same thing, it is always waiting. But what it is launching is deciding to exit right away, or not.

More later..

________________________________
From: rcolebur at SCIRES.COM
To: jay.krell at cornell.edu; m3devel at elegosoft.com
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:06:36 -0500
Subject: RE: [M3devel] more info on ticket 1082 wrt start /wait
Jay et al:

Well I've done more testing.

Jay you are right about the multiple instances.  For both IE8 and FireFox on Vista, if you already have an instance running and use "START /WAIT" to get another instance, the second instance starts up (a new window) and the "START /WAIT" immediately returns rather than waiting.  Conversely, if this is the first instance of IE8 or FireFox, then "START /WAIT" does indeed wait for the browser to close before it returns.  I'll have to get to an XP machine to confirm if this same behavior occurs there as well.

If you go back to IE6, it didn't have Tabbed windows, so maybe that is why "START /WAIT" always waited.

I don't have an immediate fix for this behavior since the original design used the "START /WAIT" functionality on Windows.  On POSIX, it doesn't.  The quick fix I mentioned earlier is probably the best thing to do now.  I could perhaps modify the sources to change the default CFG to "return FALSE" on Windows instead of "return TRUE", thereby implementing the quick fix for everyone.  I'll check into this shortly.

As for your comments about cm3ide not being "great" that is your opinion; however, back in the day when reactor (aka cm3ide) first came out, this was indeed leading edge stuff.  The idea that you could tweak your IDE by making simple HTML file changes I think was pretty novel at the time, and the thinking from the CMass Inc folks was that as the browser improved, your IDE would improve automatically (e.g. multiple tabs was a subsequent browser improvement).

Even though you may not consider CM3IDE to be a great IDE, I do find that it is extremely helpful during development when browsing source code and looking up interface specs.  With just a hyperlink, you can quickly find what you are looking for.  It also has a lot of built-in links to reference material and coding examples.

Note that cm3ide hasn't really changed much at all since reactor first debuted.  Now that we finally have the open-source release, we can modify it to make it better.

Regards,
Randy

From: jayk123 at hotmail.com [mailto:jayk123 at hotmail.com] On Behalf Of Jay K
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:43 PM
To: Coleburn, Randy; m3devel
Subject: RE: [M3devel] more info on ticket 1082 wrt start /wait

What if you just simply:
  "start http://localhost:whateverport"

Personally I find cm3ide/reactor to be ..not great.

The behavior you are noticing is that the web browser might decide there is another adequate instance of it running and ask it to display something and exit.

You will likely find different behavior depending on if an instance of the browser is already running.
There might also be a command line option to control this.
But I think your best best is just not to use /wait.

 - Jay

________________________________
From: rcolebur at SCIRES.COM
To: m3devel at elegosoft.com
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:38:34 -0500
Subject: [M3devel] more info on ticket 1082 wrt start /wait
Ok, I've done a bit more testing.

I don't think the problem has to do with "START /WAIT ..." but rather it seems to be a difference in Windows Internet Explorer.

When your browser is set to FIREFOX instead of IE, the "START /WAIT firefox.exe" command works fine, so you can keep the "return TRUE" in the CM3_IDE.cfg file.

But, when using IE8, the "START /WAIT iexplorer.exe" command does not wait for IE8 to terminate and returns immediately, thus the "return TRUE" in CM3_IDE.cfg must be changed to "return FALSE" to prevent immediate shutdown of CM3IDE.

If I go to a Windows 2000 box running IE6, the "START /WAIT" again seems to wait for IE to terminate.  I haven't tested yet with IE7 to see if it behaves correctly or not.

So for now, folks may want to use FireFox instead of IE with CM3IDE.

Regards,
Randy

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