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From: rhialto@cs.kun.nl (Olaf'Rhialto'Seibert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: C compilers (was a flame war : -)
Keywords: library hard disk shared
Message-ID: <2925@wn1.sci.kun.nl>
Date: 7 Apr 91 01:57:01 GMT
References: <2259@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
Sender: news@sci.kun.nl
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Lines: 30

In article <2259@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> ronny@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Ronald Cook) writes:
>>>Why hasn't someone made the entire c.lib into a loadable library
>>>so all programs can share it instead of duplicating these routines
>>>hundreds of times all over everyone's hard disks?  Why not even
>>>just printf.library (this alone would save megabytes on my hard disk)?

>NO! NO! PLEASE, NO!
[...]
>I have several good programs which I don't use because I don't have the
>space for their shared libraries on my boot disk. 

But libraries, devices and fonts don't really have to live in LIBS:,
DEVS: and FONTS:, if they are only used in a single program. It is
possible to use OpenLibrary("VOLUME NAME:path/some.library", ...),
OpenDevice("VOLUME NAME:path/some.device", ...), and 
OpenDiskFont("VOLUME NAME:path/some.font", ...).

The requested resource is then first looked for in memory (with volume
and path removed of course), then in LIBS: DEVS: or FONTS:, and if that
also fails finally in the exact location specified. This makes it possible
to either leave it on the distribution floppy (for floppy users) or put
it on your boot disk (for harddisk users). For example, NetHack does
this with its graphics font, and WP with its overlays (which seem to be
handled like libraries).

>		....Ronny (Cook)

--
Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert                               rhialto@cs.kun.nl
How can you be so stupid if you're identical to me? -Robert Silverberg