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From: flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Time Zones: A Plea for Standards?
Message-ID: <1166@gistdev.gist.com>
Date: 17 Apr 91 17:12:30 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.200244.7775@cc.curtin.edu.au> <1991Apr15.155026.20777@menudo.uh.edu>
Organization: Global Information Systems Technology Inc., Savoy, IL
Lines: 16


You can always fix it so that you can run all your conflicting applications at
once by putting a "wrapper" around them: a small shell script or .bat file that
fixes the conflicting variable, runs the application, and then (in the case of
DOS) restores the original value of the variable.  Of course, lots of people
who only want to use the machine, not program it, don't know how to do this.

As a developer, you can't win.  As someone who has been through the problem
of having used an environment var for a few years and then some new thing
(in my case, Korn Shell) shows up and uses that same named environment var
for something different, you are always at risk.  Choosing a weird name
may make the chances of a conflict less likely, but won't eliminate it.
-- 
Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc.
1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL  61874     (217) 352-1165
uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com