Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!coherent!next!sstreep
From: sstreep@next.com (Sam Streeper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: environment in desktop
Message-ID: <304@next.com>
Date: 29 Nov 90 20:23:54 GMT
References: <1070@nikhefh.nikhef.nl> <3285@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Reply-To: sstreep@elvis.UUCP (My Account)
Organization: NeXT, Inc.
Lines: 32

In article <3285@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ) writes:
>t68@nikhefh.nikhef.nl (Jos Vermaseren) writes:
>
>>is there an official legal Atari sanctioned way to add variables
>>to the environment of the desktop? The only way I can come up
>>with is a terrible hack that leaves a little resident job with
>>the new string. It has to look amoung its ancestors for which one
>>is the desktop and then modify its pointer to the environment.
>>If this is the `official' way I would like to know that too,
>>but it is quite thinkable that there are already better ways.

This way works very well.  I use this method so that my environment
from the desktop matches my environment when I am running from within
the Laser shell.  The overhead is insignificant - a 256 byte
basepage plus about 50 bytes of assembly language code plus the
length of the new environment strings.  If anyone wants I can post
the example.  (This code is not original; I modified it from
code posted to the net about 4 years ago.  If I recall correctly
it doesn't use any questionable kludges...)

>There seems to be no official way to extend the system environment.
>You _could_ do it this way: Place some program in your AUTO folder
>that links into the exec_os vector. Wait for someone to jump thru
>the vector (that is, wait for AES to come up). In this moment,
>patch the environment as desired or install a new one.

Ack! don't do that!  (I know, atari programming sometimes makes you
jump through hoops.  Does it bother anyone else that Gem periodically
resets the trap #2 vector?  Like "you didn't reset that for a reason,
did you?  Here, let me fix it!")

-sam (sam_s@NeXT.com)