GORRIEDE@UREGINA1.BITNET (Dennis Robert Gorrie) (10/02/89)
Larry Phillips (lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca) 9/24/89*Want multiple default directories writes: ;In <624@tardis.Tymnet.COM>, jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith) writes: >Here's a suggestion that would make toolpath unnecessary. It's an idea that >is at least 12 years old on TOPS-10 that MS-DOS has only recently >implemented. (And Unix doesn't have yet, as far as I know.) > >The idea is to have a directory (or list of directories) to be searched >if a file is openned for input and not found in the current default >directory. TOPS-10 called this the LIB PPN and/or the LIB: pathological >device. MS-DOS 3.20 calls it the APPEND command. (I don't like that name.) .... ;Is this A Good Thing or has April Fool's day come twice this year? Aren't ;naming conflicts a problem if for no other reason than that your data file ;names must then be unique within any given 'LIB PATH'? If an explicit path is ;given as a file name, wheter it be absolute or relative, by physical or logical ;device, does it really make sense to assume that a file found via a path can be ;written over or appended to? Yow! .... My first question to Larry is if he has used either the TOPS version or MS-DOS APPEND command. The MS-DOS APPEND command has quite a few switches, giving you control over what kind of files the appended path is searched for (data or exec), what order they are searched in, and if the appended path can be read and/or written to. I was able to use APPEND to successfuly install and run non-multi-user programs like Freelance and Word 4.0 on a multi-user Novell Network. When a program would run, APPEND could ensure the program defaults could be read from the system partition. On the other hand, APPEND could also ensure that the if the user changed a programs default's, they would be saved in his own partition, NOT the system partition. An APPEND-like command would also be very usefull for Amiga Floppy Disk users, who have limited storage. For example, I buy program SuperFOO, and pop it in DF1:. However, it expects to find its defaults in my SYS:S directory. Sure, I can re-ASSIGN S: to df1:, but then I effectively lost my path to all my other script files. The same goes for other 'start-up' programs who expect to find their tool in C:. For example, ED, the startup program for CygnusEd (CED), allways expencts to find CED in the current or C directory. Most floppy disk users would have their boot disk 100% full, so they can't just copy the tool to their C: directory. So, they must re-assign or CD to the directory of this other disk. With a command like APPEND, and user could have C: to be defined as a toolpath on both df0:c and df1:c My last example is libraries. Many programs (like AREXX) have extensive use of custom library files, that a floppy user simply cannot fit on a boot disk. If they must use re-ASSIGN libs to another disk, then they loose the lib path to any custom libraries they may have had on their own boot disk. >Ending on a humorous note, I can say "the other guys have it, we want it too!" ;In that same spirit, I will ask you the same question my mother used to when I ;said something like that. "If the other guys jumped off a cliff, would you want ;to jump off it too?" ; ;-larry Like I said, I've used the ms-dos APPEND before, and it saved me a lot of effort, and I wish I had it for my Amiga. There is some potential to muck up a system setup using such a command, but I think most people would find it would save them a lot of effort. Besides, it just so happens I can jump off a cliff without getting hurt (well, provided there's some water down below).