[vbox-dev] Custom front-end using non-OSE SDK

[Brad Robinson]

Inline

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Whitley [mailto:whitley at bangpath.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, 28 October 2009 2:27 AM
> To: Klaus Espenlaub
> Cc: Brad Robinson; VirtualBox developer's list
> Subject: Re: [vbox-dev] Custom front-end using non-OSE SDK
> 
> Klaus Espenlaub wrote:
> > Do you know for sure that there is no flag which can be set in the
> > executable to avoid the console window? That's where I would start
> > digging if I'd have time.
> 
> Yes, you can do this.  This is how all Windows GUI apps are built.  In
> fact, that distinction is the hallmark between "console" mode apps and
> "gui" mode apps in Windows.  I may be able to look up the low-level
> particulars later -- but if you have access to Visual Studio, just
> generate a basic console app template vs. a basic gui app template and
> compare them.  I'm not sure offhand whether this will be in the
> skeleton code for the app, or somewhere in the compile flags.  Be sure
> to check out both.

[BR] See linker switches /SUBSYSTEM.  Apps linked with /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE
automatically get a console created unless the call to create the process
has the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag.  For /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS it's the other way
around - they don't get a console window unless they specifically create one
in code.  So I guess VBoxHeadless could be made consoleless by switching it
to a GUI app rather than Console app.  In Visual Studio this setting can be
found in Linker -> System -> SubSystem.
  
> 
> >
> > Note that reusing OSE source code (covered by GPL) to talk to the
> > PUEL-licensed VRDP server component is a GPL violation.
> 
> At least by U.S. copyright law, this isn't correct.  The two cannot be
> distributed together, but there's nothing against an individual user
> separately obtaining and using GPL and non-GPL code together for a
> particular application.
> 

[BR] We'll I'm not really re-using any code from the OSE anyway, more just
using it for reference on how to talk to the SDK.  In fact my app is pure
Win32/ATL and doesn't even use the xpcom, sdl or any other libraries used in
the OSE.  Would this constitute a violation and if so does this imply I need
to do dark room development against the SDK?

Brad