Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!ukma!psuvax1!psuvm!dearn!dmswwu1c!onm07 From: ONM07@DMSWWU1A.BITNET (Julian F. Reschke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Gemini Standard Usages Message-ID: <91154.131515ONM07@DMSWWU1A.BITNET> Date: 3 Jun 91 16:17:06 GMT References: <1991May31.184317.26514@lsuc.on.ca> <1991Jun1.214409.18541@lsuc.on.ca> Lines: 73 Organisation: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany In article <1991Jun1.214409.18541@lsuc.on.ca>, jimomura@lsuc.on.ca (Jim Omura) says: > This point has become sort of interesting. If you read >exactly what I said, it was a sort of a trick comment. Truth >is, I was being sarcastic. I did realize that they were using Please explain: for what reason did you WANT to be sarcastic? >it to define a search path for an empty 'cd' call. Truth is, >also that I really haven't seen CDPATH used personally (though >apparently it's 'csh' as well as 'ksh'. What I was getting >at though is that it's not classic Unix standard because 'sh' >simply looks for HOME. Though I'm starting to wonder now if >some versions of 'sh' might have been re-written to go either And BaSH, by the way... >way. But I was getting at a couple of points, albeit in retrospect, >in an overly cleverly manner. First, it's simply unnecessary. >If you think about the purpose of HOME and the purpose of CDPATH, >they are essentially duplcations of each other. Second, as I Wrong. $HOME is the home directory of the user. As long there is no multi-user GEMDOS, there really is no need for soemthing like that on the Atari. $CDPATH however is a _list_ of paths, used only for `cd'. And, finally: why don't you take a look in other shells like BaSH, which also have $HOME and $CDPATH. Why don't you send your sarcastic comments to Brian Fox. Why didn't you send constructive comments???? >pointed out earlier in my message, the Gemini team doesn't seem >to understand what HOME is for, and if they did, they would have >realized the unnecessary duplication. And I was hoping that >it would become clear, in a Zen sort of way that unnecessary >clutter in the environment is to be avoided. And also, as >I said in my earlier posting, if you don't get your standard uses >properly organized, you end up writing applications that look >in the wrong places for things. For example, if you have one >fellow using CDPATH and HOME for different purposes arbitrarily >and someone else somewhere else using them differently, you >could wind up with 2 applications that conflict. Like if >1 is looking for a '.signature' file in your HOME directory >which is '/usr/grp1/user1' but CDPATH is 'usr/projects/contract1'. >After all, if you have both then why not use them? Now if you're >going to *look* like you're copying Unix usages, then you better >be careful that you get some idea what standard usages really >are. And that may go beyond the manuals. Again: $HOME points to a directory, $CDPATH is similar to $PATH -- it's a list of paths. How _could_ they both be used for the same purpose? > > And I guess in this case I suggest that people simply >define CDPATH=${HOME} unless they have a really good reason not >to do so. And thinking about it, the best definition for the >CONSOLDIR (I think that's what it was called) is simply "." rather >than whatever they did (I think they set the console directory to >the GEMINI directory or something like that). > > But it was really sloppy of me. I rarely post things >so deliberately obscure, and frankly I just plain botched it. > In fact. >-- >Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880 >lsuc!jimomura >Byte Information eXchange: jimomura ___________________________ cut here _____________________________________ Julian F. Reschke, Hensenstr. 142, D-4400 Muenster, Phone: ++49 251 861241 fast eMail: ONM07@DMSWWU1A.BITNET, slow: jr@ms.maus.de (++49 251 77216) ____________________ correct me if I'm wrong _____________________________