[net.micro.pc] How do you use an XT?

km@emory.UUCP (Ken Mandelberg) (04/18/84)

My idea of how to organize files is to put the object code
for tools in one or more directories, set my search path
to find them, and start a project node in a new directory.
Hardly a new idea.

I just started working with an XT with one floppy and one
winchester. I am determined not to use the floppy (except
for backups, etc).

My first (and so far only) idea was to load all my tools
(compilers, wordprocessors, etc) in the root directory,
put \ in my path and cd elsewhere. Unfortunately some of
the utilities fail to find their auxiliary files (which
do live in \). It looks like these programs were written
before DOS had a file hierarchy and were only expecting
to search one directory per disk. cd makes it look like
the current directory (not \) is that directory, and
the search fails.

It also does not work to "assign" an additional disk name
(like a:) to the winchester, and install the utilities on a:.
My cd on c: (the winchester) moves the top of a: down with it.

Any suggestions.

Ken Mandelberg
Emory University
Dept of Math and CS
Atlanta, Ga 30322

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todd@islenet.UUCP (04/19/84)

Putting everything in root on the XT started getting messy so I did the
following:  My root now consists only of 'autoexec.bat' and subdirectory
listing.  All DOS files (mode, chkdsk, etc.) were placed in '\system'.
Secondary tools (i.e., tools I had to write) were placed in '\tools'.
In autoexec.bat path was set to 'path=c:\system; c:\tools' in order
to cause searches to different subdirectories.

I too ran into the problem of programs that only recognized its
current directory.  The only 'solution' I have found so far is to
write batch files  to move files around.  E.g., after writing a piece
of source code, I have it copied over to the appropriate compiler
subdirectory (e.g., \compiler\c).  Not much of a solution I admit,
but it works for me.


Todd Ogasawara -- University of Hawaii -- Dept. of Psychology
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