Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!telmail!neabbs!ajbrouw
From: ajbrouw@neabbs.UUCP (ALBERT-JAN BROUWER)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Resident, Pipes, Alias & ARP
Message-ID: <245612@neabbs.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 89 15:08:46 GMT
Organization: NEABBS multi-line BBS +31-20-717666 (13x), Amsterdam, Holland
Lines: 35

(Sorry, newsfeed shouts names)

In a reply to the 1.4 beep request Fred Gilham writes:

> Since the subject came up, let me say that I wish no one would
> hard-code their programs to use any system-defined directories to find
> auxilliary files.  When someone does this, I have to put the
> auxilliary file there whether I like it or not.  So, for example,
> bison skeletons go in s:.  Well, I want to put s: on my rad: disk, but

Agreed, my S: is a zoo too.

 I suppose Fred puts his S: into RAD: in order to get extra speed when executing
scripts.  So why not enhance the resident command (I use ARP) in order to allow
users to make script files resident?.  In certain cases this would save a lot of
time.  It would be nice if this will be implemented roughly as follows:
 ARP's resident is "load-on-demand" so if a file specified in the resident list
gets loaded, it should:
-Lock the file and note the flags and filesize.
-Read the first few bytes in order to be able to check if this is an executable
 ($3F3), a normal script, or an AREXX script.
-LoadSeg in case of executable.
-Load entire file when script.
-Do not make resident if evidence contradictory.

 I've had some problems when using pipes in aliases.  As far as I've been able
to determine, it is impossible to use the "|" symbol directly when defining an
alias.  My solution to this has been to define an environment variable Pip="|",
and use f.e. 'alias E List [] LFORMAT "%S%S" $Pip EdLaunch' instead.  Still, a
change to the ARP Alias or command-line interpreter, fixing this problem, would
be preferable.

--
-Albert (hp4nl!neabbs!ajbrouw)
Optimize your options, both in quantity and quality.