How to stop MATLAB from opening a new window using Cygwin? - windows

In the past, I have used MATLAB sparingly from Linux machines at work, and I far and away preferred using the '-nodesktop' option. On all Unix-like machines I've worked on this option allows me to control STDIN and STOUT with relative ease, but on Windows(using Cygwin) this option spawns a new window and control is returned to the calling shell!
Basically, I would like to know if there is any way that I can force MATLAB to behave as it would on a Unix-like machine?
Thanks!

Short answer: You can not.
A longer answer can be found on their website.
-nodesktop behaves differently depending if you are on Windows vs
Linux or Mac. On Windows we provide a boring Command-Window only
interface that lacks the “bells and whistles” of the regular Command
Window or the full Desktop.
So you can use -nodesktop, but it pops up that annoying command line only window.

Related

Emacs: Terminal vs shell?

I have been reading how to use a shell inside EMACS, along the way I found the concept of Terminal, which is an abstraction for the old physical devices which interacted with the shell.
But, nowadays, I really can't understand which are the advantages regarding its use, so, can you please point me out a couple of situations or examples where one should use it instead of the shell in Emacs?
Running a term buffer is much closer to an actual terminal. Here are a few differences:
Shell mode provides very limited terminal emulation. Programs that take advantage of the terminal's full-screen capabilities (e.g. less, mtr, mutt, top) won't work properly. Terminal mode will generally handle these without any problem.
In shell mode, emacs provides tab completion. In terminal mode, the shell or command-line program provide it themselves.
Shell mode buffers the input and sends it to the process on newline. Terminal mode sends the characters to the running process immediately.
Shell mode works like a regular buffer with the usual emacs key bindings. Terminal mode doesn't intercept most control characters unless you explicitly put it into line mode.
The shell is like another emacs buffer, so the same keys work in it which work in other buffers. It is not true for the terminal.
You can launch the console programs that clear the screen like mc in terminal.
Physical terminals are long obsolete, but the terminal emulators which replaced them are pretty important, and I would presume that most shells outside of Emacs are run within one, so it's not such a mysterious concept to use one within Emacs too.
It's only tangential to your question, but The TTY demystified is an excellent article which you might find enlightening.

How to make a Python PyQT program not open the command line in Windows

I have a Python program that is mostly complete, and there is one thing that I'd like to change, which may or may not be possible.
This program uses PyQT to display a GUI and I have it pretty much pinned up so I was wondering if I can make Python not open up a termianl when I open the program.
I am using Windows XP right now, but the machines it will run on will be Windows 7. I generally work with Linux, so I'm not terribly familiar with Windows.
If the terminal has to be there, it's no big deal, but I feel like it's extraneous at this point.
Thanks!
Use the python extension .pyw.
E.g program.pyw
This causes your program to be run with pythonw.exe instead of python.exe which suppresses the terminal.

Is there any way to prevent ncurses based programs from running?

Hey there, I'm building a remote shell server that interfaces between a text-only client and a virtual shell.
It works perfectly when using regular shell commands, but the first thing that people try after that is vim, which promptly drives my server crazy and can't even be closed remotely.
Is there any way to detect ncurses based programs and prevent them from running in my special shell?
(the server is ruby, but any system command will do)
You can declare the capabilities your shell has, by setting the TERM environment variable to the correct value. For instance, if your shell has the same capabilities as the vt100 terminal, export TERM to the correct value, and programs like vim will respect that.
To run vim in vt100-mode, try:
TERM=vt100 vim
You could also try:
export TERM=dumb
The trick is to find a terminal that corresponds to the capabilities of what you are creating. There is a lot to choose from. On my system (Arch Linux) this gives me a long list of choices:
find /usr/share/terminfo
You might be able to find a terminal specification that corresponds to what your program can handle.
Alternatively, you may want to consider implementing terminal emulation for ansi or vt100:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code
http://www.termsys.demon.co.uk/vtansi.htm
Best of luck!

Handling multiple perl scripts in windows command prompt

I have a lot of perl scripts that are on infinite loop running on my windows system. It is terribly inconvenient to have that many command prompts open not to mention the likelihood of closing them by mistake(strangely, they also seem to pause when I click on the prompt)
Is there someway I can handle this? Like maybe minimize this to the tray and maximize whenever necessary?
If it is of any use, I use activeperl
You can use Console2 utility, which is a Windows console window enhancement, it has a multiple tab feature.
Install GNU Screen. You can get it for Windows as part of Cygwin. You can then have multiple command line shells running in a single window, and can detach that window to run in the background.
Have you considered Win32::Daemon?

Third-party windows command-line program?

Looking for a better Windows XP command-line interface. The Visual Studio Command Prompt isn't near as nice as the Linux/OSX terminals.
Thoughts?
edit:
Answers: Console on Sourceforge, and the Windows Powershell. Thanks, I'll go dig them up and evaluate them.
The Cygwin package is too much overhead for what I want.
edit2:
Looks like the Windows Powershell for now. Its copy&paste functionality isn't great, but MS supports it.
Take a look at Console2 http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/
It's features:
"multiple tabs, text editor-like text selection, different background types, alpha and color-key transparency, configurable font, different window styles"
As has your question been tagged, have you tried Windows PowerShell? It's paradigm is based on unix's pipes but instead of outputting text the processes output .Net objects.
cygwin? www.cygwin.com. Or mingwin?
Cygwin
This is an answer extending line.
I'm not clear on what you mean by Linux/OSX command prompts being "nice". If you just mean that they provide more utilities, I usually install Windows Services for Unix to add common programs like grep and vi.
I see you put "powershell" as one of your tags. Maybe you could help direct our answers by explaining what you don't like about PowerShell as a replacement for cmd.exe?
I use Take Command from JP Software
Cygwin is a good alternative. You can run Bash or other shells on Windows. You get most of your classic Linux/UNIX commands, shell scripting, etc. You even get the GNU compilers and can avoid Visual Studio if you wish. From Cygwin, you can access your regular Windows programs, drives, etc so there's rarely a reason to go back to cmd.exe.
If you are just looking to automate tasks via shell scripts (not interactive shell), then you should look at Windows Scripting Host. WSH is a feature-rich scripting environment for Windows that comes pre-installed on all modern versions of Windows.
I've been combining putty, cygwin, screen, and zsh(not bash) lately. I like a lot of the features of zsh, like autocd which and auto-pushd, which put the directories you change into onto the directory stack without having to type pushd. I also like that fact that multiple shells share history, and don't overwrite each other. Screen lets me run multiple zsh shells in one putty window. You can get zsh and screen from the cygwin site. I run: putty -cygterm screen
You'll also need the patched version of putty that has the -cygterm support.
GitBash by git is also a good option. It can be configured to be used in unix like environment.
It can be downloaded from here http://msysgit.github.io/

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