[krbdev.mit.edu #6410] MessageBox calls in leashw32.dll cause problems for non-interactive applications

[Jeffrey Altman via RT]

mayer at ntp.isc.org via RT wrote:
> Jeffrey Altman via RT wrote:
>> The leashw32.dll is filled with calls to MessageBox().  The assumption
>> was that if an error occurred within the krb5 library that it should be
>> displayed to the end user.   The problem is that KFW is no used only for
>> interactive applications and even when it is the generation of
>> MessageBoxes from the library as opposed to reporting the errors to the
>> application and letting the application interact with the user is
>> (perhaps) a poor choice.
>>
>> Attached is a patch that disables all of the MessageBox calls within
>> leashw32.  It permits USE_MESSAGE_BOX to be specified at compile time in
>> order to re-enable the MessageBox calls.  
> 
> It seems to me that a better solution would be to replace calls to
> MessageBox with a call to a different function and have that function
> decide how to deal with the message. Since this is a DLL it needs to
> decide at run-time whether or not it's interactive and what to do with
> the message.
> 
> Danny

Danny:

I have to ask what benefit the extra work would provide?   Simply
because the process happens to be running in an interactive environment
does not mean that a library should throw up arbitrary dialog boxes.
leashw32.dll was a support library for Leash32.exe and that ticket
manager relied on the library displaying the errors for help desk
support.  Leash32.exe is no longer supported and cannot be compiled
with the latest Visual Studio.  leashw32.dll is simply a support library
for gssapi32.dll and krb5_32.dll.  In that role I do not believe there
is any reason to have it display dialogs.

Jeffrey Altman