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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!mks!wheels
From: wheels@mks.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: finding name of program
Message-ID: <227@mks.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Mar-87 15:16:54 EST
Article-I.D.: mks.227
Posted: Thu Mar 12 15:16:54 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Mar-87 06:15:52 EST
References: <4374@utah-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 25
Summary: Has this been solved in the general case?

In article <4374@utah-cs.UUCP>, sandra@utah-cs.UUCP (Sandra J Loosemore) writes:
> What I would really like is a pathname, so I can make MicroGNUEmacs look
> for a startup file in the same place as where the executable lives.
> 
> -Sandra
> (utah-cs!sandra or sandra@cs.utah.edu)

This problem also exists in the MS-DOS world. How should a program
determine where to look to find other parts of itself (overlays,
resource files, etc.).

One solution is to have the program use the PATH environment variable,
and look in all those places. Can anyone tell me if TOS has environment
variables? Are they set when using GEM, or only when using a shell?

Another solution is to load a resident program which intercepts all
opens and does its own searching. This is available for MS-DOS, but
I don't know the details of its inner works.

If neither of these is available, TOS programs may just have to look
in a few predetermined places (/, /bin, /auto, etc.). I hope something
else can be done.
-- 
Gerry Wheeler                  {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!watmath!mks!wheels
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.