Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!imagine!pawl22.pawl.rpi.edu!jesup
From: jesup@pawl22.pawl.rpi.edu (Randell E. Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Sys:System vs. System:
Message-ID: <399@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Date: 21 Feb 88 04:16:09 GMT
References: <7025@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <3343@cbmvax.UUCP>
Sender: news@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU
Reply-To: jesup@pawl.rpi.edu (Randell E. Jesup)
Organization: RPI Public Access Workstation Lab - Troy, NY
Lines: 40

In article <3343@cbmvax.UUCP> andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) writes:
>In article <7025@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> spencer@eris.berkeley.edu (Randal m. Spencer [RmS]) writes:
>>But on top of
>>that it made me realize that the idea of workbench keeping its files
>>(diskcopy and format) in sys:system and not system: is also quite annoying.
>
>Are you advocating keeping all such files in the root ?
>Workbench keeps its files in the System drawer so a) it can
>find them, and b) so they don't clutter up the root directory.

	As far as I know, SYS: has no real purpose in life.  All the useful
directories (until 1.2 and system) had assigns so you could move them
elsewhere, or rename the directories.  Looking for a specific subdirectory
off of SYS: violates this standard.

>>why do I have to create a directory in ram called system when I want to
>>run diskcopy and format out of ram?  I want to just copy the files and
>>then assign System: to Ram:, or is that just me that feels this way?

>Well, one more logical name wouldn't be too bad.  Of course, you
>could no longer name a disk (or volume) System.  But where to stop ?

	All "special" directories should have assigns, as l, libs, fonts,
c, s, and devs do.  I think that t: should be added as well, but that's
no where near as important.  I think applications should be wary of counting
on having their own special assigns.  They may conflict with disk names
in the system, other appications, and make people startups slower.  Perhaps
applications should check relative paths first, then look for files relative
to some assign/disk name.  This isn't always possible, especially for things
like compilers, but you can limit the number of assigns needed (Lattice needs
LC:, INCLUDE:, QUAD: and LIB:.)

	With the arp library, shell variables can take the place of many 
assigns, avoiding at least the conflicts with disk names.  Of course, you
must still have and set the shell variable, but....

     //	Randell Jesup			      Lunge Software Development
    //	Dedicated Amiga Programmer            13 Frear Ave, Troy, NY 12180
 \\//	beowulf!lunge!jesup@steinmetz.UUCP    (518) 272-2942
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