Re: [Gimp-developer] Windows 8.1

[Jernej Simončič <jernej ena si>]

On Saturday, April 11, 2015, 19:07:16, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:

> "This is Windows 8.1, As I already said, your installer puts all the
> .dll files in the bin folder. They won't work there. I have to move
> all of them to the Windows/System32 folder where they belong."

> Now, as some of team members pointed out, System32 sounds like he's on
> Windows 98 (with Windows 95 habits) rather than on 8.1. But is it
> correct to out .dll files there? And if it is, why would GIMP not work
> then?

System32 is only intended for libraries that are part of the OS. Any
installer that puts it's own DLLs there is broken.

The problem here is that while gimp.exe and it's libraries are in
bin\, the plugins are in lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins\. GIMP does set the
environment to have bin\ directory in PATH, but if there's a DLL with
the same name as one used by plug-ins in System32, it'll take
precedence (DLL search order on Windows is executable directory,
System32 [SysWOW64 for 32-bit programs on 64-bit Windows], System,
Windows, current directory, %PATH%).

Since System32 has precedence over %PATH%, the plugins may stop
working if an older version of library is installed in System32. For
this reason, I suggest that once the plugin API is broken (GIMP 3?)
that the plugins on Windows move to the bin\ directory, possibly with
a different extension than .exe (or maybe a double extension -
.plugin.exe?). This way they'll always use the libraries that ship
with GIMP.

-- 
< Jernej Simončič ><><><><>< http://eternallybored.org/ >

Machines should work. People should think.
       -- IBM Pollyanna Principle (IBM'S Incorrect Principle)