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From: jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.os.msdos.apps
Subject: PATH Statement
Message-ID: <26883@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 13 Feb 91 13:54:00 GMT
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Organization: UF CIS Dept.
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Thanks for all the replies for lengthening my path, and here is a summary
and why none of them work. :)

1. "Make BAT directory, set your path to it, and run it that way!"

A lot of my applications work off of my current directory, for example, I
have about 8 different document directories that I got to to use WP 5.1
with, so I CD to them then type WP....a BAT file that takes me to the WP
directory won't help.

Other programs are ones like DS (Directory Sort), FF (File Find), etc.   I
know I could make a DS.BAT:

C:\UTILS\NORTON50\FF %1 %2 %3 

But remember, under DOS the minimum amount of space that file will take up
on an AT is 2048 bytes.  So each 45 byte file is actually 2K, and I can't
afford the space!

2.  "Shorten directory names"

This is possible, but still only helps TRIM the PATH statement.  When I do
Windows development I have around 7 paths I NEED...to C600, WINDEV and its
subdirectories, etc.  And even E:\WNDV\RSRC;E:\C600\BIN; etc. etc. takes up
enough room where it is pretty much impossible to put other things in the
path.  Also, many programs expect to find themselves in certain places, and
changing them can be a pain (case in point...Windows....had to substitute
WIN for WINDOWS in all the .INI files!).

I've shortened them anyway.

3.  "Move directories to the surface"

Can't deal with the clutter....77 sub directories off of the root directory
(and this on just ONE drive!)  No thanks.  I something a tad bit more
elegant than that, and even then, I still don't think they'll all fit even
with shortened names.

4.  "Put everything in the same directory"

Too many name conflicts....File Size and Format Save (FS and FS), Safe
Format and Send File, INSTALL (about 15 of these altogether), SETUP,
disktest, etc. are all common names (INSTALL, SETUP, DS, SD, SF, these are
some examples).

Also, have you every tried updating something that was kept scattered over
several drives or directories?  I'm sure no one would want to update their
compilers if they had a couple of them installed in E:\BIN (  I have 4,
count 'em, 4 C compilers alone!  TC, TC++, MSC6.00, and MS QC2.5!) and they
share common names -- TCC, QCC, CL, *.LIB, include files, etc.)

5.  "Use 4DOS"

I HAVE to stay with DOS as much as I hate it since I am a DOS developer.  I
can't even have the SMALLEST incompatibilites with something.

6.  "Switch to UNIX/VMS/APPLE/AMIGA/SOMETHING ELSE"

Sorry, too much software and time invested in what I'm doing right now....




Brian

PS Thanks for the help anyway....this is highly annoying.