Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!rbutterworth
From: rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: startgem
Message-ID: <1990Oct10.153840.6126@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 90 15:38:40 GMT
References: <2272@cod.NOSC.MIL> <1990Oct6.150214.25136@water.waterloo.edu> <1990Oct9.172718.2939@watmath.waterloo.edu> <1990Oct09.214303.1858@ecst.csuchico.edu>
Organization: Math Faculty Computing Facility, University of Waterloo
Lines: 26

In article <1990Oct09.214303.1858@ecst.csuchico.edu> ekrimen@cscihp.UUCP (Ed Krimen) writes:
>- Is there a version of startgem.prg that works with all versions of
>- TOS?  I've seen a few startgems that work with one version but not
>- with others.
>You don't need STARTGEM with Rainbow TOS and I'm pretty sure it works 
>on TOS 1.2.  If not, you can try HEADSTART.  HEADSTART works better 
>than STARTGEM anyway.  If it's not on atari.archive, let me know and
>I'll send it.

I haven't tried it yet, but the HEADSTART documentation claims it
doesn't work with Rainbow TOS (1.4).

Perhaps I didn't explain what I want well enough.
Let's say I have a wonderful program that I want to give to
someone and want to have it auto boot.  If I know the person
will always use TOS 1.4 I can set up the entry in the desktop file.
If I know he will always use TOS 1.2, I can set up the STARTGEM
program.  If I know he will always use ... .
The point is, I don't know what he will always use, because "he"
might be different people with different systems.

What I need is a single auto folder program that can determine
the current version of the OS and do the appropriate thing.
It seems rather silly for me to write a large program that runs
portably on all known versions and then have to make different
disks for each OS simply in order to get it to auto boot.