Intractable Complexity

With a little help from DRB, it is really quite easy to get your Windows computer to open TextMate over the network.

The gist of it is that you’re going run a DRb server on your Mac, which can be called by a ruby script running on Windows, which in turn is registered to be the handler for the txmt:// ‘protocol’.

The server script

  # txmt-server.rb
  PORT = 7777
  require 'drb'
  require 'uri'
  require 'cgi'
  class MateServer
    def open(url)
      params = CGI::parse(URI::parse( url).query)
      `mate -l #{params["line"][0].to_i} "#{params["url"][0][7..-1]}"`
    end
  end
  DRb.start_service("druby://:#{PORT}", MateServer.new)
  puts "Started MateServer on port #{PORT}..." 
  DRb.thread.join

This is the one that runs on your Mac. Change PORT if you’d like.

The client script

  # txmt-client.rb
  DRB_SERVER = 'druby://!SERVER-IP!:7777'

  require 'drb'
  DRb.start_service
  ms = DRbObject.new(nil, DRB_SERVER)
  ms.open(ARGV[0])

This one will be ran on windows. Set to the IP to wherever txmt-server.rb is running and save it somewhere.

Registering the txmt:// protocol with Windows

Intuitively, this is done via the registry (duh…). Create a .reg file and put this in it:

  REGEDIT4

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txmt]
  @="URL:txmt Protocol" 
  "URL Protocol"="" 

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txmt\shell]

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txmt\shell\open]

  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txmt\shell\open\command]
  @="\"C:\\rubyw.exe\" \"C:\\txmt-client.rb\" \"%1\"" 

Replace C:\\rubyw.exe and C:\\txmt.rb with your actual paths, doubling-up all back-slashes.

Double click the .reg file to have it added to your registry.

That’s it!

Provided the server is running on your mac and your network is up clicking on txmt:// links in Windows will work just like it did on your Mac. Hooray!

Danger Will Robinson!!!

I made this script for my own home use, which happens to sit comfortably behind a router/firewall. It is a security hole since somebody can call the open method with something that ends up getting executed in your shell.

DO NOT USE THIS ON A PUBLIC NETWORK!

SERIOUSLY!

With that in mind, I hope at least a single person finds this useful. Stranger things have happened.