[WIP] Add a windows launcher program to replace the current .bat files

[sbc100]

This is still just an experiment but eventually I hope to remove the .bat files in favor of this executable.

There are several reasons to want to do this:

1. Batch files are notoriously painful to work with and mis-understood.
2. Should be faster (no need to launch cmd.exe).
3. Works around several known issues with .bat files including one that is known unsolvable one (see emcc.bat for more details)

[sbc100]

@dschuff @kripken WDYT?

[kripken]

I don't know much about windows, but would we need to build this as part of the emsdk, ship it, etc.? How important are the issues solved by this?

[sbc100]

I don't know much about windows, but would we need to build this as part of the emsdk, ship it, etc.? How important are the issues solved by this?

I think since its just a tiny .exe we could just check it into git once.. then the create_entry_points.py script would make N copies of it, one for each script.

[kripken]

I think since its just a tiny .exe we could just check it into git once..

Isn't there windows-on-arm, so a single binary wouldn't work?

[sbc100]

I think since its just a tiny .exe we could just check it into git once..

Isn't there windows-on-arm, so a single binary wouldn't work?

True! Although I'm not sure anyone is using that yet. We certainly don't yet provide emsdk binaries for windows/arm64.

[dschuff]

I haven't reviewed the code yet but I think this idea is generally good We did something similar for the NaCl compiler (for a different reason, but a similar technique). I think I have a mild preference for building it with emsdk rather than checking it in, but I could be convinced.

[dschuff]

Does this work with non-ascii directory/path names?

[cwoffenden]

There's a whole world of TCHAR pain and Win32 file API coming someone's way...

[RReverser]

3. Works around several known issues with .bat files including one that is known unsolvable one (see emcc.bat for more details)

FWIW PowerShell scripts I added a while back should also already solve this issue, and they're chosen by default on Windows when users type emcc ... in PowerShell.

I don't mind the .exe approach, it might make it easier to solve the long-standing issue with Ctrl+C as well - that one is somewhat difficult to solve with either of scripting systems - just want to make sure it's not a burden to maintain.

[RReverser]

We certainly don't yet provide emsdk binaries for windows/arm64.

Windows have long had system similar to macOS Rosetta, it's just that Windows on ARM has only picked up in popularity recently with new laptops, but essentially any x64 .exe is automatically supported on ARM via translation layer.

Native ARM might be nice to have for wasm-binaries, but for something as simple as this invocation script perf shouldn't matter as much.

[sbc100]

3. Works around several known issues with .bat files including one that is known unsolvable one (see emcc.bat for more details)

FWIW PowerShell scripts I added a while back should also already solve this issue, and they're chosen by default on Windows when users type emcc ... in PowerShell.

I don't mind the .exe approach, it might make it easier to solve the long-standing issue with Ctrl+C as well - that one is somewhat difficult to solve with either of scripting systems - just want to make sure it's not a burden to maintain.

Having to maintain the .ps1 and .bat files in parallel is another reason to make this switch.

Sadly I don't think the .ps1 files can actually replace the .bat files because IIRC powershell is somehow optional in windows so its not guaranteed to always be there.

[RReverser]

Perhaps worth looking at py2exe than rolling something own?

[sbc100]

Perhaps worth looking at py2exe than rolling something own?

I have looked at things like that over the years but the complexity always scared me off. It would also be little sad to loose the "edit-in-place" abilities of the plain-old-python files.