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  • 201406.19

    Windows GUI apps: Bad file descriptor. (or how to convert a GUI app into a console app for easy debugging)

    Lately I've been neck-deep in embedding. Currently, I'm building a portable (hopefully) version of Turtl's core features in ECL.

    Problem is, when embedding turtl-core into Node-webkit or Firefox, any output that ECL writes to STDOUT triggers:

    C operation (write) signaled an error. C library explanation: Bad file descriptor.
    

    Well it turns out Windows doesn't let you write to STDOUT unless a console is available, and even if using msys, it doesn't create a console for GUI apps. So here's a tool (in lisp, of course) that will let you convert an executable between GUI and console.

    Seems to work great. Special thanks to death.

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    • how-to
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